The Rogue Games
by AmiraStarr
Summary: With her past finally uncovered, Rogue settles into a hectic new lifestyle and tries to balance her many responsibilities. Once mysterious and dangerous things start to happen in Lenox and new family members enter the picture, she must quickly figure out who she can trust and how the X-Men can stop a force none of them could ever see coming. *Sequel to The Rogue Ruler*
1. We Need A Vacation

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Anything Related To The X-Men Or The X-Men. I Don't Own Batman Or Superman Either.**

 **Thanks for taking a look at 'The Rogue Games' the sequel to 'The Rogue Ruler'. This story might make sense if you haven't read the first one, but it will be easier to understand if you read the first one before reading this one. Thanks again for giving this story a read. And if you enjoy this tale, you should probably give some of the credit to Jehilew. She has sat through more talks about this story idea than anyone ever should. :).**

 **Summary:** **With her past finally uncovered, Rogue settles into a hectic new lifestyle and tries to balance her many responsibilities. Once mysterious and dangerous things start to happen in Lenox and new family members enter the picture, she must quickly figure out who she can trust and how the X-Men can stop a force none of them could ever see coming.**

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"If one more person calls me _princess_ , I cannot be held responsible for my actions!"

Remy laughed quietly and tightened his grip around her shoulders. "You are a princess, mon coeur."

The library was completely empty, sans the two mutants cozily snuggled together on a love seat set against one of the side walls. They had originally gathered under the pretense of studying for upcoming finals, but the thick books had been neither opened nor brought with them to the room. Instead, they had spent the last half-hour in quiet companionship talking about nothing but whatever random things crossed their minds. Of course, they had also spent a few pointed minutes discussing how nice it was, that Kurt and Evan had kept Axel busy by trying to teach him how to play video games for the eighth time. Hands as big as the giants just were not meant to hold something that could and had been, to the other mutants' growing dismay, snapped so easily.

Ever since Rogue, officially known as 'Her Royal Highness, Alexandria Gracelyn Rose Lenox, Crown Princess of the Lenox dimension', had discovered her true identity and past, things had been shifted into a speed so rapid that she could barely hang on. It had been almost a year since her battle with Sunil and her time had become so booked, that she barely had time to spend with Remy. Even her own thoughts had been pushed to the side since different issues seemed to pop up at the start of each new day, supposedly requiring her full attention.

She had spent the first part of her new life directly beside her mother, Lydia, current Queen of the Lenox dimension, trying to reconnect and make up for lost time. It had proven to be hard to get in a lot of quality time, though, with the queen being called to meetings from morning till night. They had been willing to give her a break for a small period of time so she could recuperate, but that window had been far too short for Lydia and her daughter. The rest of Rogue's Lenox time had consisted of helping the Morph resettlement project and trying to avoid the many photographers who chased her every time she stepped outside of the castle. The thing no one mentioned about a place full of mutants was that they could have invisible and flying paparazzi. And of course, the photographers were excited to catch _any_ sight of the long-lost queen and princess. Her once solid thought that people would grow tired of watching her and Lydia had been dashed into a hundred disappointing pieces. It didn't matter in the slightest what they were doing; magazines of her making speeches sold as good as pictures of them eating lunch at a café.

With her mother back on the throne, Rogue had been able to get a real glimpse of her future life. The idea of having that much responsibility to other people honestly scared her deeper than she dared to admit. She could barely keep herself on time for training sessions and remember to do laundry before her closet was completely empty. How would she keep Lenox together? It had been that deep-seated fear of responsibility that convinced her to go back to Earth for a while and try to finish her high school courses. Having a degree could be her gateway to an Earth college and a career in journalism or writing that kept her out of the palace. She knew that it was probably just her way of running away from an issue, but the plan had worked somewhat well for her in the past and it kept her heart from trying to nervously jump out of her chest.

"You know exactly what I mean," She sighed and furrowed her brows as Remy's thumb made small circles over her covered shoulder, "They either make fun of me after hearing rumors or act like idiots and bow. What kind of idiot bows when they see you stumble out of your bedroom at seven am?"

Remy's slow breathing and the gentle rise and fall of his chest as he chuckled gently at her grumbles, comforted the stressed out, girl. She laid her head near the crook of his neck and tried to close her eyes and forget everything that was expected of her. As Remy's hand continued its slow circle motions, she didn't notice that he had cautiously moved the hand up her shoulder. With one small movement, his thumb grazed the side of her cheek and the absorption began immediately.

Thankfully, Rogue had gained a little more strength when it came to her absorption powers and was able to pull herself away from Remy so fast that she tripped over the coffee table in front of them and landed with a thump on the other side. She wordlessly regained her footing and watched his face and chest for signs of life. Although he was slightly paler, his eyes were open and his chest was moving quick enough to reassure her that he was going to be okay.

Once she was certain Remy would be fine, she pointed an angry finger at him and growled, "You know better than to pull an idiotic stunt like that Remy LeBeau! You could have gotten hurt or worse!"

He coughed slightly and seemed to be at a loss for words, or maybe it was the shock of being slightly absorbed that kept the boy quiet. Either way, Rogue was having trouble giving him too much pity. Remy knew that she had figured out a few new ways to control her powers, but it wasn't foolproof. And the various images of what he had been considering floating through her head did little to gain him any sympathy from the frustrated southern belle.

As long as she focused extremely hard on the person, touch was possible. They had shared some quick kisses and a few short handholds, but nothing greater than those simple actions. It took more out of her to keep the power suppressed then she would admit to anyone, including Remy. Headaches had become a very familiar friend to the girl, as she continued to try harder than even Logan suggested to gain a new hold on her powers. Keeping a well-stocked supply of painkillers in her dresser had helped the issue, but even the pills couldn't stop the deep thundering of her worse attacks.

Personally, she was less nervous about the pain she faced than the idea of losing Remy. Now that he had weaseled his way into her heart, he suddenly had a much larger amount of power. She couldn't just ignore the way his attention made her feel or how one look at his eyes sent a shiver down her back. It was terrifying to think that she had let him into a heart that few people would ever know, though she sometimes questioned whether she had let him or if he had more likely, managed to pick the lock and bounded right inside. Whatever the reason, he was part of her now and it was just as exciting as it was frightening for the southern girl.

Still, how was anyone supposed to enjoy a kiss when the whole time they had to focus their entire brainpower on not hurting the other person? It was better than they had been, but she wondered, and worried, how long Remy would stay with her if all she could do was kiss his cheek for half-a-minute. If it had been, as some people had theorized in the mansion, her unattainability that had attracted him to her, then this might just destroy the whole thing. She was now just awkwardly able to be close to him and that seemed more of an annoyance than a daring challenge for Remy, in her opinion.

"Is everything alright here?"

The twosome looked towards the door and noticed Axel standing there with a worried expression coating his slightly chubby features. Despite the fact, any danger Rogue could picture was gone, when she had decided to go back to Earth, so had Axel. He had barely been talked out of following her to school and spent almost all of his time exploring the mansion as well as trying to understand the strange Earthlings' behavior.

"Yeah." Rogue sighed and gave Remy one more quizzical look as he offered her that silly crooked grin, "Swamp Rat was just trying to speed up his death."

"It be completely worth it, Chere." Remy chuckled despite his girlfriend's exasperated sigh.

The look on Axel's face proved that he was lost and growing more concerned as the two settled into their usual routine of playful bantering and empty threats. Rogue took pity on the confused guard and pushed the subject back to her schedule, which seemed to be the main reason the giant would ever look for her. At the verbal reminder, Axel reached into the bag he almost always carried with him and pulled out his red notebook.

The mere sight of the notebooks forced a sigh out of both Rogue and Remy. Ever since Axel had arrived on Earth, he had become obsessed with note taking. The two notebooks in his bag were separated into two very different categories, blue was for any strange Earth thing he learned and red was saved for Lenox information, Rogue's schedule, and various tidbits he thought she needed to be alerted to. On the weekend visits, Rogue and Axel had taken to Lenox, Axel would always greet Eleanor with a large kiss and then go file his notebook away on an oversized bookshelf in his room. Over the year, he had already filled up at least a dozen of those blue notebooks. After he whipped out his red notebook, he ushered her to the hallway so she would not be late to her meeting with the professor.

Unlike the other mutants in the mansion, Professor Xavier had not changed his treatment of her in the slightest. It was rather refreshing to have someone who still looked at her like she was normal and not an idiotic-wannabe-princess or some stuck up celebrity. The professor had treated her and everyone else he had met in Lenox as normal people who deserved respect and attention.

Even as she settled into the plush chair in front of his desk, while Axel plopped onto the love seat in the corner, the man stared at both of them with the same kind smile. If anyone would have made a good royal, in Rogue's meager opinion at least, it would have been Professor Xavier. He had the skills in diplomacy and crisis management that she could not even picture being within her range of possible talents.

"Thank you for coming to see me," He greeted each of them in turn then gave Rogue his full attention, "I was hoping that I could discuss an idea with you."

"Sure, Professor."

"Summer break is coming very soon and the other teachers and I have been discussing the idea of taking the students to Lenox for a visit. Only, if that would be okay with you, of course."

The words stunned Rogue into silence. She had expected his request to be something simple, like keeping Axel away from the jars of peanut butter until someone else has a chance to eat some. Or maybe, a more serious request to stop threatening to throw the mutants who called her princess out of the second-floor windows. She couldn't imagine why he would want to take people to Lenox. Well, then again, she had a small idea that his research into the castle's old paperwork on various family trees could have something to do with it.

"I believe that it would be a good opportunity for the students to see the possible history of their families." He continued as Rogue tried to swallow the words, "It would also be nice for them to see how well the Morphs are doing now that you have started to create a bridge between the people."

Mentally, Rogue wondered if she should tell him that the progress was not quite as grand as he apparently imagined it to be. Sure, the first few months had been great and the majority of people had wanted to help out the Morphs and give them a chance. But now that the novelty had begun to wear off, there were growing disputes all over Lenox. Both Morphs and other Lenoxians were having fights and shouting matches about who was right or what should happen.

Besides the disagreement between their views of the Morph assistance program, there was also the idea that he expected the students to do research over the break. Did he really think they would care to find out which one of their very distant relatives might have come from Lenox? Granted, Rogue had found it somewhat interesting when the professor had first told her that he believed the visits of Lenox people to Earth had pushed the mutant gene around. She figured the idea was interesting in some far-fetched way but wasn't convinced that a bunch of high schoolers would care either way.

"Professor," She tried to broach the subject delicately instead of turning him down flat, "It might not be as great as you think. I mean it isn't like I know all that much about the current programs or helping people make peace." She fidgeted in her chair nervously, "You know Jude, my mom, and the other leaders are the ones who really know anything about that helping stuff."

"Alex," He used her birth name and gained her immediate attention, "You are a very good leader. You went through harder trials than most people could imagine, and you still showed grace and compassion to the people in the Morphs' land. You need to realize that you have true leadership skills."

She smiled ever so slightly at the compliment but pulled it back in just as quickly. It was hard to imagine herself as this tough and compassionate person the Professor and Remy told her she was in their eyes. All she had done was throw a power surge at someone who was trying to hurt her family. _Any of the X-men could have done that, right?_ She thought with the usual self-doubt that was one of her closest friends.

"You know," Axel spoke up and pulled out his little red notebook, "If you plan your trip for June you can go to the Interdimensional Games."

Rogue outwardly groaned as the words slipped out of Axel's mouth. She had already heard his extremely long-winded spiel about the games over-and-over again for the past two months and was not willing to sit through it again. There was something about her lack of Lenox pride that seemed to rub Axel the wrong way. He had always been fiercely proud of his homeland and wanted to instill that same love in his friend and future queen.

Rogue did love Lenox, but it was more for her mother and various friends than old traditions and fancy parties. As she watched the Professor's eyes light up with interest she continued to wonder why it wasn't enough that Axel had already demanded she attended the games. Was he really going to rope the Professor into this idea?

"What are the games?" The professor asked, the interest clearly showing in his voice.

Rogue jumped in before Axel could start the proud story of the history of the games, "Imagine the Olympics played by Batman and Superman."

Despite her blunt explanation of a traditional Lenox event, Axel didn't chastise her. He was too busy scribbling the names Batman and Superman in his Earth notebook. He made a side note to find out if Batman had the head of a bat and body of a man or vice versa. Axel was pretty certain the names had to be for some kind of athletes that were popular on Earth. Maybe, they were mutants, too? He added the note to his book and looked up to see that the X-men's leader was already settling the dates of when the trip would be offered for any interested students.

"This will be wonderful." Professor Xavier smiled confidently at a nervous Rogue as he set the dates for departure on his calendar.

Time flew a lot quicker than Rogue had expected it would, but soon enough the calendar hit June. Even more surprising than the time jump, was how many mutants had decided to go on the two-week trip to Lenox. She had never expected people would voluntarily sign up for a trip that blatantly warned its travelers of possible time-difference-lag on the sign-up sheet. _Who would look at a list of warnings that long and think sign me up?_ She wondered to herself bitterly.

Apparently, as she stared out at the large group of mutants gathered around Earth's newest teleportation stone, a lot of people were undeterred by the foreboding poster. She sighed and tried to offer Remy a smile as he placed a gentle hand on her lower back. Rogue was thankful her closest friends in the mansion had decided to come along for the games, but she didn't know what to think about the students who were a little too excited about her being a princess or the ones that constantly taunted her. What would they say when they saw her stand up for the opening ceremonies in a glittering tiara and fancy dress? As she imagined the jokes and crude comments that would probably flow swiftly through the students' various communication lines, she cringed. Maybe she could just hide for the extent of the trip and let Logan and Storm help Professor Xavier control the students. It wasn't like she had agreed to be a tour guide. _No_ , she figured internally, _I just sat there silently, so that could have been taken as a no_.

"You will be okay, Chere." Remy whispered into her ear and brought a smile back to her face, "If they annoy you, just throw them in the dungeon and toss the key."

She stifled a laugh and gave him a small wink, "Deal."

She took a slow breath and faced the crowd before her as the moment of dread approached, "Alright, everyone. Get in line and try to keep your lunch down, it is time to go through the light stone."

The stones had been somewhat deactivated after the attack on the castle years before. It hadn't been until the discovery of Lydia and her regain of her rightful place, that the council had started to work towards modifying the stones to allow the people of Lenox to once again freely visit Earth. Until the recent changes, the only people who had been able to activate the stones were members of the royal bloodline or those who had certain knickknacks with, what had been described to Rogue as, activator trinkets. Once the portals were all opened up, anyone with the slightest hint of Lenox DNA could go and come as they pleased. For now, Rogue had chosen to escort small groups one at a time through the stone. It wasn't the easiest ride to get through and she figured if anyone lost a hand or foot by sticking it out of the light's barrier walls she would feel pretty bad.

The group stared at her face in a mix of confusion and excitement. A few of the more starry-eyed girls squealed in the back of the crowd, while a pair of chuckling boys made small talk about how this was probably some kind of giant trick. The professor cleared his throat and reminded the group to pay close attention to everything Rogue told them, causing the rowdy group to finally fall silent. Slowly, they took their places in line for the teleportation stone, not knowing the grave dangers that awaited them in Lenox.


	2. Looking Into A Familiar Face

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thanks for reading the last chapter everyone. It is nice of you to take time out of your busy lives to read this new chapter.**

 **Thanks again and here is your chapter:**

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The moment the group arrived in the familiar forest of giant green trees, things began to turn weird. At least, they were awkward and uncomfortable for Rogue. Lenox guards dressed in full uniform were stationed on either side of their teleportation stone and saluted her the moment she appeared. It wasn't a completely unfamiliar sight since the guards always greeted her when she came home, but this was the first time the other students had seen people treat her like a real princess.

The teenagers mumbled under their breaths and seemed genuinely awed as the group walked the short distance to the castle's front gate. Only a week earlier, Rogue and Axel had practically pleaded with the head of the guards to keep everything low-key. At least, Rogue had tried to fight for a calm welcome. Axel had spent time later that same day pushing for a huge welcome since these were guests from another dimension and it would be their first impression of Lenox. So, despite Rogue's request for a modest welcome and calm greeting, the sight that greeted them was practically a parade.

The guards stationed in position along the entryway and tall towers, saluted her upon sight and one of them let loose a very loud musical tone to signify her arrival. He repeated the gesture once more and announced with great volume, "Her royal highness, Queen Lydia of Lenox."

It was against royal protocol, but as Lydia and Eleanor appeared in front of the group, Rogue gladly rushed forward and accepted her mother's open arms. They hugged tightly for a moment while Rogue tried to ignore the various whispers she heard through the crowd behind them. The only person most of them had ever seen her hug was Remy, and even then the two seemed to spend a great deal of their time picking and playfully bickering at each other, versus cuddling. After all Rogue had been through, she wasn't going to turn down a chance to hug her mother. If they wanted to tease her, well she still liked that dungeon idea Remy had.

"Welcome home, Alex." Lydia smiled at her daughter as their hug parted and let her attention drift slowly to the newcomers. She had the speech planned for their arrival and had no problem drifting into the diplomatic side of her personality. When the, surprisingly short, welcome speech was finished, Lydia turned her attention back to her daughter, "How about we let them get settled? I have a surprise for you."

Only a short time later, Rogue, Remy, and Kitty found themselves settled in the Queen's private sitting room. The idea that this was just the small room in front of her even larger bedroom still amazed each of the young mutants, despite the fact they had all been inside both rooms multiple times. Rogue and Remy couldn't fathom why anyone would need that amount of space, while Kitty had secretly tried to figure out how she could design her future bedroom to match the ornate one surrounding her. It had been Kitty who had been brave enough to venture a quick question about how the others thought the younger mutants were taking in the enormity of the place. Rogue had ignored the question with a small groan and slouched in her chair, while Remy had let out a smile and mentioned something to Kitty about Axel giving guided tours to everyone whether they wanted it or not.

"So, what is the surprise mom?" Rogue, happy to push the conversation away from the field trip, smiled at her mom and appreciated how much healthier Lydia looked after spending a year back in her home. Where her eyes had once been shallow and her skin white as a ghost, she was now moderately tan and more filled out, giving her a fit frame. She had never really lost the regal sparkle in her blue eyes, but now that she was healthy, her whole appearance seemed to stop some people in their tracks. Even some of the guards had spared her an extra look when they thought she hadn't been watching.

"Alexandria," A new voice interrupted the quiet moment and forced the group to look at the doorway. "It is so wonderful to see you again, cousin."

The young woman waltzed into the room with an air of confidence and attractiveness that practically oozed beauty queen status. She curtsied politely to both Rogue and her mother without tripping once, then stood straighter than Rogue had figured would be humanly possible. Her mature air and skilled movements were eye-catching, to say the least, but what really shocked them into silence was the young woman's physical appearance.

Slowly, Rogue rose from her chair and stepped forward to stare the newcomer in the eye. Her hair was as curly and dark reddish brown as Rogue's, though it was styled into a sweeping side hair-do to play up the curliness. Even the woman's eyes held the same emerald shade as Rogue's, minus a few strong flecks of brown that could do nothing but accentuate the boldness of the green. Unlike Rogue's ripped jeans and sneaker combo, the stylish woman before her was covered in a fitted dark blue dress and a pair of black kitten heels that accentuated her toned legs and pushed her about an inch above Rogue.

For a moment, the nervous princess wondered if she had been placed in front of a mirror that showed alternate realities. No one in the room, minus Lydia who seemed blissfully happy that her daughter was meeting more of her family, could pretend they weren't able to see the creepy similarities. If Sunil and the Morph attack had never happened, Rogue would have most likely become a mirror image of the poised, well-mannered girly girl standing before her. Momentarily, she felt her hand twitch as if the desire to touch the girl's face and make sure she was real was uncontrollable. All the real princess could imagine was how many people in Lenox expected that she would have behaved and appeared just like this girl when she stumbled back into the dimension.

"You do remember your cousin Victoria don't you, Alex?"

Rogue merely slowly nodded in response to her mother's question and pushed one of her white bangs out of the way of her left eye. It was impossible to wrap her mind around the idea that even the tone of their voices had similar qualities, despite the way Victoria seemed to make smoother sounds come out of her mouth. The only thing Rogue could find to outwardly distinguish herself from Victoria was her white bangs and a small heart-shaped birthmark on the lower left side of her back. At this rate, though, she wouldn't have been surprised to find out Victoria had a matching freckle.

"It has been a long time since we last saw each other." Victoria, unlike her unmoving cousin, remained calm and collected, "I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to visit you. I have been very busy helping my father take care of the new Morph guidelines in Meridan."

The way Victoria said ' _Morph guidelines_ 'didn't sit well with Rogue. She was willing to admit that she knew not everyone was thrilled with her new plans to welcome the Morphs into Lenox cities, but it almost seemed like Victoria had purposefully dipped her voice at the name to show some kind of distaste. Truthfully, Rogue knew better than to think Victoria would just outrightly belittle and rant about her cousin's programs. But it still didn't seem normal that someone as composed as Victoria would just slip up like that.

"I remember you." Rogue finally spoke up and tried to pull any information she had stored in her head about Victoria to the front of her mind. She remembered not being too fond of the girl. Actually, as she skimmed through the dusty memories of her youth, she could also remember the last conversation she had with Jude before the attack, was about being upset Victoria was coming to her party. She wouldn't think to mention those memories in the middle of the room, so instead she took the safe route and chose to talk about her father's brother, "You're uncle William's only child."

"Very good." Victoria complimented her cheerily, but the way she said it sent Rogue's temper flying.

"Who is William?" Kitty, used to her roommate's signs of impending anger, spoke up from her seat and tried to distract Victoria from saying anything that would set Rogue off.

"He is King Thomas' younger brother." Victoria answered, her tone seemingly lighter when she spoke to Kitty. Though, the observation might have been biased since Rogue was not too happy at that particular moment. "He is officially known as the Duke of Meridan to the people."

 _He is known as the duke of blah blah_ , Rogue mocked Victoria's prideful speech in her mind a little, despite how childish it seemed and probably was. There was just something about Victoria that didn't sit well with Rogue. Add in the memories of being unmercifully bossed around by her cousin as a child, and the simple distaste began to grow into something surprisingly very bitter.

"Wow," Kitty kept Victoria's attention as Remy tried to discreetly motion for Rogue to take a step back before she did something she would regret. "So you are a Duchess, right?"

"Correct." Victoria took her own seat beside Lydia's chair and continued to hold an air of calmness as she meekly crossed her ankles and rested her gloved hands in her lap. "Now that my father is stepping down from the public eye, I will be taking over his duties. In fact, my district of Lenox is hosting the Interdimensional games this year."

"There isn't an election?" Rogue suddenly spoke up and the two Earthlings in the room waited in suspense to see if she would lose her temper or, more likely, stick her foot in her mouth. "You just take his place and the people don't have a vote?"

"It is tradition." She responded and locked eyes with her cousin, "Just as it is tradition for the ruler of Lenox to be a mimic. The people have to wait and see who will be the next to _try_ to rule depending on what children the royal couple has."

How they made it through the rest of the reunion visit without having a full-fledged fight between the cousins was something Remy and Kitty couldn't understand, but were extremely grateful for. They both knew that Rogue was internally seething by the time she had been able to escape the queen's sitting room, but she had surprisingly kept herself together. It almost appeared that her small amounts of royal training and etiquette classes had been of some use besides just giving her a chance to zone out and rest her weary mind.

Once the two Earthlings and frustrated princess made it to the empty hallway, Rogue's anger reached its boiling point. She grumbled for a good ten minutes about how snobbish and arrogant her cousin acted, stopping only for brief air breaks when they passed people in the hall. After seeing her normal day-to-day mood swings in full action during her visits to Lenox, most of the guards had long-since lost their initial shocked responses when they saw Rogue huff angrily to the kitchen or her bedroom. They merely offered her a polite salute, as was custom, and went back to their own projects.

"She doesn't seem that bad," Kitty ventured bravely, or possibly foolishly, as they entered the large kitchen. "I mean, maybe she just seems rude because of how she was raised. They probably drilled manners and stuff into her from like birth."

Remy remained quiet as he watched the little brunette risk her neck by stepping into an angry Rogue's sight. He couldn't help but find her courageous, reckless and a little naïve, but still courageous. Personally, he usually found it easier to let Rogue have her moment then distract her with something much more enjoyable. As long as she wasn't threatening to actually hurt someone or herself, the man figured it was a somewhat cathartic experience for Rogue to let out some of her emotions through grumbles and overly difficult danger room sessions.

As she bit into an apple with far more force than necessary, Remy decided it was probably time to try and cheer up his sour sweetheart. He moved closer to her and reached out a hand to gently touch her shoulder, but her eyes didn't even notice him. Instead, she focused her attention on the doorway to the kitchen as a big smile suddenly appeared on her once downcast face. He followed her line of sight and spotted the one person in Lenox who made his own annoyance level rise sharply; Judah Kingston.

"How did I know that I would find you in here?" Jude laughed softly and walked the short distance over to Rogue.

The two shared a small good-humored jab to each other's arms and easily flew into their own round of playful banter. It was a tradition that made Rogue feel like she was actually home, and made Remy feel seasick. As far as Remy and the dimension of Lenox knew, Rogue and himself were an item, to some degree. They may have been an odd, constantly arguing pair, but they were together. After their first real kiss in the middle of the silver ballroom, the word had spread like lightning to the various towns and districts around Lenox. But watching her interact with Jude in such a carefree manner every time they visited, made him wonder what was really going on in Jude and Rogue's heads. Normally, he tried to force the idea to the back of his mind until it became so faded he could hardly recall what had been thought. Unfortunately, it turned out that he wasn't too good at forgetting things.

All he knew was that she had chosen to try and start a relationship with him, and told Jude they were just going to be friends. It was all she had ever really said on the matter, and Remy hadn't pushed the topic. He wasn't sure if the lack of questions on his part had been only out of respect for Rogue or if there was also a part of him that simply didn't want to know what had gone on between her and Jude in the past.

As he watched Jude take one of her hands and offer a polite kiss, he could only halfway smile at Rogue's mock annoyance with the man. She never told Remy, but he could tell from looking into her eyes that she was hurting badly each time they kissed or touched skin-to-skin. It took so much out of her to hold the powers back for a minute, that he wondered if it was crueler to let her keep trying to touch or to tell her to stop. The easy way she could act around Jude, never showing the fear that he may be hurt by her touch or never grimacing in pain from trying to hold herself back always sent a sharp pain through Remy's heart.

"I am glad to see you," Rogue broke him from his thoughts as she started to talk to Jude in a normal voice, "I just had to sit through the longest tea party with the bossies-"

"Judah, there you are." Victoria's voice floated through the kitchen and stopped Rogue in her tracks.

She watched as Victoria practically floated through the kitchen and stood right next to Jude. Being the well-bred gentleman he was, Jude took her hand and gave the knuckles a gentle kiss while telling her how happy he was to see her again. Victoria smiled brightly at Jude and let her hand linger longer in his touch then seemed necessary.

"Victoria," Rogue stood up from the edge of the table she had been sitting on and hid the half-eaten apple at her side, "I thought you were still with my mom."

"Oh, I can't stay long." She added, in the tone that Rogue secretly thought was a dig to her, "I was just looking for Judah. Aunt Lydia said that he promised to escort me back to Meridan. It really is nice of you to take so much time to help me with the preparations for the games, Judah."

"Of course, it is my pleasure," Jude offered Victoria a bright smile in return, and then turned his attention back to Rogue. He misinterpreted her appearance as a sign of simple sadness that he was leaving instead of the true mixed emotions of uneasiness and jealousy flowing through her as Victoria played up to him. The woman stood next to him so happily, as Jude tried to appease Rogue's supposed disappointment, that it did little but make things worse, "Don't worry, Alex. We will all be together for the next two weeks. Your group is leaving for the games tomorrow. Remember?"

She mumbled out a reply so distractedly that if asked, she would never have been able to recall the words as she watched Jude and Victoria leave the kitchen arm in arm. She tried to tell herself that this was just another way Victoria was attempting to subconsciously get to her for whatever reason. _Or maybe_ , she thought, _this is just the naturally polite thing for royals to do here_? Either way, she continued to try and add more stuff to her list of things she wanted to believe, with the main one being that she was not jealous that someone else was possibly showing interest in Jude. That part of her life was over.

The boy standing protectively beside her, watched her face with deeply scrutinizing eyes, and wondered to himself if Jude and Rogue really were done after all.


	3. Everyday Superhero

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Also Do Not Own the song 'Everyday Superhero' by Smash Mouth.**

 **Thank you to everyone who read the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy the story and the newest chapter. The title for this chapter came from 'Everday Superhero' by the band Smash Mouth. It seems like it might fit this chapter.**

 **Thank you again for reading the newest chapter and here it is:**

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By the time the X-men's tour group reached Meridan, the shock of seeing open displays of mutant abilities had still not come close to wearing off. The wide-eyed students still continuously mumbled about the feeling that they would be attacked at any minute by mutant haters or giant robots. They had watched the people on the street fly, vanish, and create amazing displays of water and lightning without any of the Lenox natives blinking an eye, but it was still hard to let go of their reservations.

The main mutant that Rogue had been concerned with was Kurt. He had been to Lenox before, but he still maintained his image inducer state as they wandered the streets of Meridan together during one of Rogue's brief moments of free time. Queen Lydia had been more than accepting of him when the foster siblings had first told her about their connection through Mystique. She had hugged and sweetly thanked Kurt for being there to help Alex and love her through the difficult times on Earth. It had been a truly touching moment for everyone involved, but Kurt still seemed uncomfortable letting his guard down in a place that wanted at least half of his heritage out of their town.

Axel kept a close eye on the pair as they walked through the streets and tried to avoid stopping long enough for anyone to spot Rogue. It was hard to hide her trademark hairstyle, though, so they had already been delayed by at least four autograph seekers only ten minutes into their walk. Each time she signed the papers or pictures, Kurt managed to distract himself by looking at various vendors who had set up their booths along the long winding sidewalk.

"Doesn't this creep you out?" He asked her when the last autograph seeker left their side.

Rogue sighed and shrugged her shoulders as her foster brother dangled an official Princess Alexandria doll in front of her face, "Honestly, it ain't near as creepy as those things."

He followed her pointed finger to a side booth and read the sign propped up in front of the stand with a look of disgust. _Who would have thought to create a virtual date with the princess booth?_ He wondered as a young man walked up to the slightly covered stand. Although there was a piece of fabric covering the inside of the makeshift room, he could catch a small glimpse of the man sitting with his eyes closed on a chair, while someone else's hand rested on his forehead.

"Yuck." He stuck his tongue out and pointed a finger at his mouth at the idea of someone using his or her powers to project a dinner date with his sister into someone else's head.

"Forget 'em, Kurt." She laughed softly, having become somewhat able to ignore the sight of her face all around Lenox, and wrapped her arm around his shoulders, "Let's keep goin' before Axel tries to drag me off to some stupid opening ceremony practice."

Unlike the deep forests that surrounded the city of Kurt and the palace grounds, Meridan was situated at the base of a large mountain range. The terrain was pretty hilly in some parts and it offered a great leg workout to anyone exploring the highs and lows of the city and its natural surroundings on foot. To the far west of the city was a warm sandy beach and an ocean so clear and blue, that most of the X-men had run off to have a beach day. According to Kitty, the water had simply called too loudly to be ignored. Anna figured she must have been deaf to the language of the ocean because she had found no desire to strap on a suit and run off with the others. Thankfully, Kurt had volunteered to stay behind as well, giving them some much-needed quality time.

Meridan was the second biggest city in the Lenox dimension, and the residents had been battling Morphs and Lenoxians' issues since the start of the programs. There were so many opinions in the city, and now that thousands of more people were coming into the city to compete in the Interdimensional games, the tensions were even higher. The groups from the most Morph opposed districts did nothing but fuel the anger between the two groups as they arrived at the city limits until it threatened to boil over and create a real problem for everyone in the area.

Which is exactly why Rogue stepped into one of the latest fights when the group caught wind of the commotion growing down the street. Kurt and Axel raced after her as she jogged over to the loud noises, making sure to stay right on her heels. The two sides of the argument turned out to be a pair of large men and a smaller, but still taller than Rogue and Kurt, Morph man. They yelled at each other so loudly and angrily, that it was impossible to gauge what anyone was actually saying.

"Alright, Alright," Rogue stepped in between them and the voices of the trio quieted, but the crowd encircled the fighters tightly, "What is going on here?"

"Your majesty," The two men bowed immediately and the Morph gave her a slightly untrusting head bob. "This Morph just stole from my store. I was only trying to alert the authorities when he tried to attack us."

"I didn't attack anyone!" The Morph yelled out at the two men, "I paid you for the damn bread and you dared to call me a Blue-Dirt."

"If the shoe fits!" The other man snarled out ferociously.

The yelling started up again, but Rogue quieted it with a hand wave, "Stop it, both of you!" She turned towards the men who were watching her with great attention, and seemed to have almost lost her past shyness when faced with the frustrating situation before them, "Now did he pay you for the bread?"

"He gave him three coins for it," The smaller of the two store-keepers admitted, "But I told him that he had to pay five coins."

Rogue looked back to the Morph holding the bread in question and the man scoffed.

"Dirty cheats in this city are always trying to make us pay more money. Ask him what he charges to the others."

The idea that things had gone so far downhill that even simple shopping transactions were becoming this hectic and unfair, worried Rogue. It had seemed like such an easy idea to bring everyone back together in the Lenox world. Weren't they supposed to be accepting of all sorts of people? She knew that some of her council members were green and at least one had bright silver wings on her back. How could people in a world like that still be so angry with one group of mutants?

"Look," Rogue tried to keep the peace between the shopkeepers and the morphs mixed into the crowd, but she had a funny feeling that no matter whom she sided with, people would be upset. "It is only fair to charge the same price to everyone. If the bread is normally three coins, then it is three coins for everyone."

The men agreed and offered her another bow, before walking back to their store. Although she couldn't hear the men talking about her decision, she did catch a few of the other Lenoxians whispering about her possible disloyalty as they broke their circle apart. The Morph who had been accused offered her a kind smile and quietly admitted that maybe all the Lenoxians weren't quite so horrible after all. _At least someone didn't seem upset_ ; Rogue figured and tried to cheer herself up.

Once they were back on their way, Rogue finally spared a look to her brother. Kurt had remained silent throughout the entire interaction and she couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. Unlike most of the X-men, he had a pretty strong family tree connection in Lenox. She still hadn't told him that Mystique was the granddaughter of the man who had kidnapped her family or that she was also the great-granddaughter of Sunil. But Kurt had been told enough to know Mystique was from Lenox and had rescued Rogue from the attack on the palace. The last thing she wanted was for her own brother to feel unwanted in a place where he should have been free to walk around without an image inducer. But with each display of anger between the two sides, she figured she was losing more and more of his confidence.

"Alex," As they neared uncle William's mansion, the royal family's home away from home during the games, Lydia called out to them. Kurt remained silent, but Rogue waved at her mom and directed the two of them to her side, "I was hoping to talk to you for a moment."

"Of course," She stepped inside the door and noticed Kurt had decided to tag along instead of trying to avoid spending time with Lydia.

In the back of her mind, Rogue had begun to wonder if Kurt had somehow figured out more about the past than she had told him. But how would he have been able to hear anything about that night or his family's connections to them? The only people who knew the whole story were Rogue and possibly her mother. And the more important question was, what would happen if he actually figured it all out.

She pushed the worries out of her mind and focused on her mother, "What is going on?"

"It seems that a few of the teams have decided to join sides with some of the anti-Morph groups." Lydia's voice was soft as if she was worried that other people were trying to listen to their conversation, despite the fact Axel was currently keeping watch outside the door.

Rogue spared a small glance at Kurt to see how he was handling Lydia's speech, but he kept his gaze focused on the wall behind Lydia's head.

"The town has been filled with confusion, and now it seems that there are going to be only a few Morphs, if any, on the most of the teams. The rest of the Morphs have banned together to make their own Morphs-only team."

"I'm sure that is all going over great…" Rogue sighed and realized that no matter how hard she kept trying to push them together, the people still crawled back to their own sides.

"Exactly," Lydia sighed and shook her head softly, "I know you are disappointed that things haven't gone more smoothly Alex. It will just take time. They will eventually see that they have a lot in common and can live in peace if we just keep trying."

"Vhat if you had a big mixture team?"

Both women looked at Kurt as he suddenly spoke up. It felt like it had been ages since she had last heard him say anything, and Rogue found herself listening closely to each word Kurt offered them. He fiddled with his image inducer for a moment, as if he was unsure if he wanted to take the leap or not, then hit the off switch. Instantly, his appearance changed to that of the real Kurt Wagner and both women offered him a smile.

"If you could create a team that had Morphs and Lenox people on it, they vould see how good they could vork together."

"That is a wonderful idea." Lydia smiled brightly and patted the boy's shoulder, "It would be the perfect moment to show everyone that it is possible to coexist in harmony."

Rogue smiled at the two of them interacting almost like family, and added, "So where do we get this team?"

The room was silent for a moment until Kurt linked arms with Rogue and gave her a cheeky smile. She knew exactly what he wanted without the boy uttering a word, and her face instantly fell from a smile to a nervous grimace. _Wasn't the point of the plan to have people play who could win?_ Her brain reminded her over and over again as the rest of the room started to shift into a more excited mood. If he threw the two of them on the field, they were bound to lose, mainly because they didn't know any of the rules! Sure, Axel had told her a synopsis of some of the games, but that didn't mean she knew what to do if she was put on a field.

"You can't be serious…"

Kurt waggled his eyebrows at her and tried to brighten her sour mood, "Ve can do this Rogue!" He let go of her arm and turned to the side so he was standing between Lydia and her daughter, "Ve join a team, play a few games, and everyone is happy!"

"Kurt, ah can't even play in the Power Matches," She silently said a small prayer that Remy wasn't there to catch her nervous accent slip. "I can't compete in these games."

"Actually," Lydia spoke up slowly and kept a finger on her chin as if she was tapping the idea out on her face before sharing her thoughts with them. The queen furrowed her brow for a moment and considered a few more things before glancing back up to the waiting X-men, "It would be against protocol, but I think we may be able to make an exception in your case."

Rogue bit back the urge to question whether her case was different because of her lack of powers. It wasn't a secret that she had a lot less control and skill than any Lenox heir before her. The whole dimension knew that she was still too dangerous to touch for fear of absorption. So, it seemed reasonable that they would believe she couldn't use a random power reserve to beat everyone unfairly.

Overall, it was a strange bag of emotions when it came to her powers. She knew that something was there, that was the only way to explain what had happened in her battle with Sunil, but she couldn't understand _what_ was there. She had tried, boy, had she tried, to pull that strange inner fire back out in Danger Room sessions, but it never worked. There was just something missing in the plan, and she was starting to think that it was her defectiveness that was the biggest problem.

Another headache started to form suddenly as she thought about her powers, but she refused to rub the sore part of her head in front of the others, "So what, we just take over someone else's team or create a random Team Earth?"

"That is great!" Kurt cheered showing his bubbly side once again, "Ve'll get the X-men and maybe a few other Morphs to join."

"This just might work," Lydia agreed feeling her own happiness grow at the sight of Kurt's joy, "The opening ceremony is tomorrow, so we just need to sign up your team today and you can get a little practice in the next two days before the competition starts."

"Great…" Rogue added in a groan as the two mutants in front of her tuned out her negativity and started to plan what event would go to which X-man.

There was something about the whole plan that seemed wrong to Rogue. It wasn't as if she disliked the idea of showing the people how to get along. A lot of the problems in this dimension would have been solved if the others could learn to coexist. No, she couldn't point out exactly where the problem was, but as she tried to nonchalantly rub her sore temple, she had the feeling something bad was coming their way.


	4. Explanations and Problems

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Also Do Not Own Batman Or Superman.**

 **Thank you for taking a look at the newest chapter, everyone. I appreciate you taking time out to read this story. And A big thank you to Jehilew for her two sweet reviews to the story.**

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"You want us to like, do what now?" Kitty asked as the X-men huddled in one of the large drawing rooms nestled deep within the duke's mansion.

The plan had been explained in great detail, thanks only to Kurt, but there were still quite a few pairs of confused eyes in the room. Rogue had simply sat beside him on the couch and tried to keep herself out of the limelight. This meant a lot to Kurt and it would help bring peace to Lenox, so it was a good idea. _Well, at least it could be a good idea_ , Rogue figured as she watched him launch into another retelling of the idea, _if he could convince the X-men to compete on the team_. So far, she hadn't had that much enthusiasm for the idea and it appeared that most of the X-men were unsure as well.

"The point is to see us win the events?" Scott asked, and mentally judged whether or not they could avoid looking foolish playing games they had never tried before. "Haven't the Lenox people been practicing for these events for years?"

"Probably," Rogue added with a soft sigh as she stared at the crowd surrounding her, "All they are is the Olympics for superheroes, but they are a pretty big deal to the people of Lenox."

"Like Batman and Superman." Axel, feeling proud that he had remembered his newest bit of Earth trivia, smiled warmly at Rogue and stood a little taller in the corner. Eleanor, standing beside him, giggled under her breath at his antics and patted his arm.

"Right," Rogue added as the couple seemed to drift into their own moment, "They have flying stuff, hand-to-hand combat, targets, something called psychic focus, and a ton of stuff I have never heard of."

Axel broke his moment with Eleanor as Rogue struggled to recall his lessons on Lenox culture. The two guards took their spots on either side of Rogue and Kurt's couch and tried their hardest to explain what some of the events entailed.

It was no surprise that the flying event was pretty straightforward with three different challenges. The first contest focused on mere speed and required the user to navigate a course of twists, turns, and various obstacles at their fastest rate. Second level was harder and included obstacles that attacked the competitor as they tried to fly through the course. The highest scorers of the first two levels were then invited to compete in the last round that was an open course filled with inanimate obstacles and opponents who could attack you at any moment.

Gambit, who had been strangely quiet through most of the speech, perked up as Eleanor began to explain the rules of targets. The idea of throwing charged cards at various objects rushing at him in an ever changing environment was right up his alley, and he was more than happy to volunteer. Being the first of the group to actually sign up for something set him apart from the others, and earned him a pair of large smiles from Kurt and Axel.

A few of the events were more similar to the Earth style Olympics and gained a little more attention from the other X-men. Kurt was happy to sign up for gymnastics and even Logan volunteered to _possibly_ sign up for one of the combat sports. No one in the room could really tell if he was trying to help Rogue out by volunteering, or was just looking to possibly get in a good fight.

"What are the psychic focus activities?" Professor Xavier asked calmly as the other X-men began to murmur about which event would be interesting to try or how stupid the whole idea really was.

"The two player version," Eleanor took the question and quickly drew a sketch on a spare piece of paper on the coffee table, "Involves one player using their energy to keep a heavy weight in the air, while their teammate tries to defend them from attacks and tries to knock the other team's weight to the ground. The arena changes for each group and you can use whatever resources are available to you in that location."

"You should have seen last years!" Axel piped up a little too excitedly, "They used a jungle wine to wrap the guy up and toss him to the ground, right in front of this hungry panther."

A small, silent shiver spread through some of the X-men as they realized how hard some of these players took the games. The general, unspoken idea was that maybe these would be just like intense Danger Room sessions, but they were starting to shape into something different. They were definitely a little more violent than they had expected.

"What about the other version?" Rogue asked and wondered if Jean and the Professor were up for this kind of challenge.

"The other version is a team event, that is kind of like capture the flag. You keep your heavy weight guarded by the group's strongest telekinetic player and the others have to work together to capture the other team's weight. The weight can touch the ground, but the game isn't over until you can secure both weights into your team's slots."

Eleanor's explanation was basic and used only simple words, but it still left her audience in a silent stupor. She was starting to question whether or not they had understood what she said, but slowly a few of the mutants began to nod their heads and/or blink again. Maybe it was the fact she had grown up with these games, but they really didn't seem that hard to her. The Earthlings sitting in front of her all had powers and had shown great courage in the battle with Sunil's guards. What could they be afraid of?

"I say," Jean spoke up and faced the crowd with a look she usually reserved for her game days at Bayville High, "That we should do this."

Hours later, as Rogue found herself sitting in front of the game's main judge panel, she tried to remember how she had gotten into this mess in the first place. The last thing she remembered was Jean somehow managing to convince everyone to join the party and a flurry of signatures on the team sign-up sheet. They didn't have a person in every event, but they had covered a nice, broad section of the activities and were bound to be noticed by the other teams. Even Rogue had agreed to sign her name on the flying competition line, though her agreement had less to do with Jean's positive sportsmanship and more to do with the way Kurt had looked at her with such hopeful eyes.

The committee had not been sold on her late minute addition to the team roster, and they had been even more disturbed by the idea of creating an Earth team. Sure, they had told her as she stood alone in their strict eyesight, Earth was popular now because of her mysterious reappearance from there, but that was no reason to create a new team. She had countered easily enough by reminding them that the fighting Morphs and Lenoxians were the ones creating a break in the honor and respect of the dimension and that her team was meant to bring everyone together.

Overall, they had eventually relented and accepted her team as an acceptable addition. Rogue had no way of knowing, but she wondered as they reminded her she would receive no special treatment, whether or not her mom had been the one to change their mind. Queen Lydia was supposed to have no power over the way the games were run, minus big issues, but she had gone to talk to some of the judges before Rogue's team had even been put on paper. It felt wrong to start a team with a possible secret insider, but she trusted her mom enough to believe that the only help she would offer them was the chance to play.

Rogue sighed as she left the meeting and tried to settle her uneasy stomach by leaning against one of the cool marble pillars decorating the inside of the mansion. She closed her eyes for a moment and decided that she needed to take a little break and a lot of painkillers before jumping into any more conversations with anyone. The last thing she needed was another conflict or lengthy discussion to test her tired mood.

"Are you actually doing this?" Victoria's voice echoed off of the walls and rang through Rogue's ear like painful shock.

"What?" She forced her eyes to pop open, despite the urge to ignore her loud cousin, "Am I actually doing what?"

"Are you actually creating an _Earth_ team?" She demanded in a strangely polite and yet angry manner.

"Yes, Tori," Rogue pulled herself away from the column and readied herself for what could be a bad confrontation.

" _Victoria_ ," She corrected her cousin sternly and shook her head in disappointment, "Do you realize what you are doing? How many years of tradition you are breaking?"

Rogue's brow started to slip downward as Victoria scolded her like a spoiled kid. What gave her the right to attack Rogue's decisions? Didn't she realize how much trouble was breaking out on the streets of Meridan? They had to do something and it didn't matter what the royal protocol said. She could be a lot more useful on the field than standing up on a stage and handing out trophies. If Victoria was so concerned about the state of things, Rogue wondered why she didn't try and join the X-men's efforts to help people get along.

"What I am doing," Rogue spoke very slowly and deliberately as she stared down her polished cousin, "Is trying to make everyone get along."

Victoria lost a little of her manners and propped her fists on her hips in frustration, "Did you ever stop to think that maybe, they just aren't meant to go together, princess?"

A sudden heat began to build up in Rogue's right hand. She recognized the feeling as the same kind of warmth that had coursed through her body during her fight with Sunil, but its temperature was much lower. Her chest heaved slowly and she felt the back of her brain begin to let go of its control and send more attention to her hand. There was something about Victoria that just put Rogue on edge, and she wasn't completely sure if she could, or would even want to, stop herself from attacking the girl.

"Victoria," Jude's voice broke up the tension and forced both girls to drop their angry positions. Rogue slumped her shoulders casually and watched as Victoria regained her perfect posture and calm exterior in seconds.

"Judah," She smiled softly at the boy and gently touched his hand, "I have been looking for you. Daddy wanted to discuss some of the opening ceremony details with you."

He nodded his head in agreement to her wishes and politely sent her off to her father's office with the promise that he would join her soon. Before she left the room, she gently squeezed Jude's hand and thanked him once again for working so close with her on the games. The whole scene made Rogue feel uncomfortable for multiple reasons, and her uneasiness didn't settle much as they were left alone again.

Jude offered her a playful smile and tilted his head as if he was examining a piece of art, "So, you and Victoria seem to be getting along."

"Humph," She scoffed and rolled her eyes at the idea of spending time with the girl. "There is something not right about her, Jude."

"Alex, she is just a stickler for the rules. Victoria is a nice person, she is just unsure how to handle all of the changes in Lenox."

" _Changes_?" She eyed the boy, feeling a little defensive, "You mean me, right? Me, and all of my new programs. She doesn't know what to do with _this_ particular problem."

Jude frowned when Rogue motioned to herself and talked so negatively. Stubbornness was one of the girl's main qualities, but he got the impression that she was being even more determined to avoid giving Victoria a fair chance. They were completely different personalities, but Victoria wasn't a threat to Rogue. She was one of the few remaining members of the girl's family and yet she was being snubbed like she had some sort of unmentionable disease.

"First off," He held up a finger to the woman he used to be able to read so well, "You are not a problem. And secondly, if you just got to know Victoria, I am sure you two could find some common ground. I've been working side-by-side with her on these games for a long time and she really is a sweet girl."

The words hit Rogue harder than she had expected them to. There was something about the way he smiled when he said Victoria's name or the way he stood up for her despite Rogue's misgivings that really hurt her. Jude was the closest friend she had in Lenox and yet it was like he was completely ignoring her feelings about Victoria. Hadn't she been right when she thought there was something wrong with Griffin? Hadn't she earned his trust on these kinds of matters?

"Nice to know what team you are on." She snapped out the words a little too harshly, but it felt as if she had already lost a little control of her mind.

"This isn't a competition, Rogue." He remarked using her code name instead of the usual Alex. She could see a small shimmer in his eyes that almost looked like she had hurt him, but her pride was wounded deeply enough that she couldn't force out an apology. "If you'll excuse me, I can't keep the Duke and Victoria waiting."

As he walked down the hall without another word to Rogue, the girl felt her heart constrict uncomfortably. She bit her bottom lip hard and turned away from the hallway in case he looked back at her. Jude's dismissal of her feelings hurt, but the thought of Victoria continuing to touch and hug Jude forced her to outwardly flinch.

Internally, she couldn't understand why she felt this way. She had a pretty steady relationship with Remy and she really was happy, despite their lack of being able to touch freely. He had been there for her through so many difficult situations, that she had easily been able to relax and let him get closer to her than almost anyone else on Earth. But despite their closeness, there was something about losing Jude's confidence that hit her deeper than just losing a friend. It was like she had lost a part of herself.


	5. The Misfits From Hayville

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Also Do Not Own The Show 'DC Super Hero Girls'.**

 **Thank you for reading this chapter! I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to read this story. Thank you for reading the story and the newest chapter. Part of the inspiration for the flying track was taken from the new cartoon 'DC Super Hero Girls'. I have only seen the first movie episode thing, but it seems like an interesting idea.**

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On the day of the opening ceremony, Rogue felt like she might pass out in front of the entire crowd. Due to her new position as participant instead of trophy passer-outer, she had been, thankfully, relieved from standing on the tall podium with her family and the games planning chairman. Instead, she stood beside a very confident looking Remy and focused her mind on the warmth his hand sent through her body as he kept a strong grip on her gloved hand. She could feel a hundred pairs of eyes staring at her and the non-image inducer version of Kurt standing on her other side.

Despite the media frenzy over her and her mother, few, if any, of the people in Lenox knew about Mystique and Kurt's involvement in her life. They knew she had lived on Earth for a long time and was taken by a _mysterious figure_ on the night of the attack, but that was about it. The various tabloids in the dimension had speculated about how she wound up with the X-men and found her way back to Lenox, but only a few had the right story. None of them, that Rogue had seen, mentioned her foster brother or the fact she had been raised by a Morph.

She took a big breath and let it fill her lungs as deeply as she could. Remy squeezed her hand even tighter to remind her that he was still right beside her. She offered him a small smile that was meant for just the two of them. Despite the pounding in her head and the fear that a riot may start, she kept her head high and watched her mother stand next to uncle William at the main podium.

The introductions to the game were given out as normally as any other sporting event. The teams' districts were called and their section of players lit up brightly, and then were shown on a large projection screen for the entire crowd to see. It was tradition, according to Eleanor's description, for the hosting district to be announced last, but that was scrubbed for Earth to be announced last. It seemed safer, in the queen's opinion to announce the team and not leave people standing in a big crowd to argue the details. It would be far too easy to start a fight in a big crowd surrounded by tons of spectators.

When the time came to introduce the Meridan team, Rogue managed to sneak a look past Kurt and over to the proficient looking group. They were dressed in matching uniforms, as were all the teams besides the recently thrown together Earth team, but their outfits looked somewhat fancier than the other groups' outfits. Each of them stood straight as a board and kept their gaze focused on the people at the podium. The only thing human about them, as far as the world could see, was the fact they had to blink every so often.

As the other X-men examined what seemed to be the strongest competitors, the princess kept her eyes glued on one player in particular; Victoria. Unlike the rules that normally kept Rogue out of big events like these, Victoria was free to play the games or compete in a power match whenever she pleased. The rules expected Rogue to be so filled with power that she was unable to play fair but she knew, and the rest of the dimension seemed to be realizing, that it just wasn't so. Their so-called mimic was just another face in the crowd.

When Victoria spotted Rogue's stare, she furrowed her brows and let her full lips curl into a competitive grin. The movement broke the robotic behavior of the team, but it did little to settle anyone's fears. Kurt, who had only met Victoria at the very quiet and uncomfortable dinner at the Duke's mansion the night before, followed his sister's line of sight and noticed the woman pulled her gaze from their team immediately. He turned back to his sister's face and gave her a goofy grin to try and cheer her up.

It wasn't like he didn't know what she was risking taking this move. The people of Lenox adored Rogue and her family, and yet she was willing to risk everything she had gained by standing next to him and outwardly supporting the Morphs. He thought that she was one of the bravest people he knew, even though she would never believe such a statement. Rogue was always too shy or self-conscious to realize that people thought highly of her. But if anyone was a coward, in his opinion, it was probably him. He had watched so many people that he was certain he was somehow connected with be treated like they were dirt and hadn't spoken out once. Rogue was willing to risk her newly discovered home and he hadn't been willing to even turn off his image inducer. But it would all be different now that they were standing here together. He was almost certain that their friendship could show the people of Lenox that it was possible for both sides to get along.

The entire arena fell into a silent hush as the head of the games looked to the group of mismatched Earthlings and a princess. With their X-men uniforms on they at least looked like they were prepared for a sporting event of some kind. As the man started to name some facts about Earth, like he had done for each of the other groups, the crowd began to whisper and talk about the strange sight before them.

"Did he just say we were from some place called 'Hayville'?" Kitty whispered behind Rogue.

"At least most of the statements are right," Jean whispered back to the girl and kept her game face on despite the hilarity of the misspoken bits of Earth trivia flowing through the speakers.

When the last statement about their team had been announced, the time to applaud came awkwardly. Meridan had gained so much applause that they had to ask the audience to hold back their enthusiasm a bit. But the sound that greeted Rogue's team was a basic, polite clap and a few cheers from the more royal-obsessed crowd members. The whole thing was a bit degrading to at least two of the X-men, and forced both Logan and Rogue to scowl and look away from the crowd.

Thankfully, the event had finished with their team announcement, leaving the group free to go and explore Meridan until the big party that night at the Duke's grand garden. Most of the X-men had decided to go and study the practice areas for their particular events, instead of following the majority of the teams who planned to spend the rest of the day relaxing. Rogue walked Gambit over to his training ground and watched him expertly hit a few targets before excusing herself to see the flying course.

As she approached the large obstacle field, she first noticed the rings hanging high in the sky. A few flyers were already racing through them and trying to find the most aerodynamic way to complete the course. Below the rings, was a designated track for the random team coaches who were busily yelling out various orders to their players. They took their eyes off of the flyers for only a moment to offer Rogue a polite head bob, then jumped right back into studying their teams.

Aside from the rings, she spotted a few randomly placed pillars and a dark looking tunnel floating in the sky that curved to the left, then suddenly shifted to the right as another flyer approached. The sight of such an obstacle made her stomach twist strongly. This was only the training course and the flyers currently racing through seemed so confident that they barely flinched when an obstacle suddenly flipped or grew sharp, pointed speed bumps.

"Are you going to take a run through?" Victoria's voice broke her cousin's mini panic attack and brought her back to the moment at hand. "You will never make it through if you don't practice on the easy course."

 _Easy course_? Anna thought in surprise as she managed to keep a straight face. The last thing she wanted to do was let Victoria get under her skin. She still believed that there was something wrong with this woman, and she wasn't going to let her get anywhere near her head.

"Ah know what I'm doin'." She snapped in an accent-coated voice while her subconscious reminded her that she had no idea whatsoever what she was doing.

Victoria squinted and scrunched her nose a little at the sound of her cousin's voice. The accent seemed to be an unpleasant sound in her ears and Rogue had to admit it was a bad sign to her own pair, too. Ever since Remy had told her that her accent became thicker when she was nervous, she had become somewhat neurotic about watching her speech patterns. Having a sign that told the world you were out of your mind was not on her list of acceptable behaviors.

"I just thought I should warn you that this course is difficult for experienced flyers. A novice,"

"A novice?" Rogue snapped at the word, taking it as a jab at her skills in general. "Ah am no novice."

"So you have been through this course before?" Victoria's tone shifted from the good sportsman, to haughty in the blink of an eye as Rogue bristled up. "Then I assume, you don't need any warnings about the fire spots or electricity barriers, princess?"

The words stuck out in Rogue's mind like a neon green sign. She hadn't seen any fire or electric parts in the course, but there was a lot more course that she hadn't walked by yet. She made a mental note to have a very long talk with Eleanor about this particular issue, then faced Victoria again. She still believed that the girl was bad news, but it was hard to put the view she had of Victoria against the idea that she seemed to be trying to give her advice on the course. What kind of competitor did that? Then again, how was she supposed to know that Victoria's advice was right, anyway?

A loud yell broke their moment and forced Rogue to snap her neck to the side so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. One of the flyers from before hovered over to the sidelines with a large black scorch mark on her left leg. The minute she landed her coach ran over and started to chastise her about looking out for the third fire loop, before checking her leg for any damages.

"Fire, huh…" Rogue mumbled to herself.

"See you at the race." Victoria smiled cheekily and flew away from her cousin without another word.

Rogue slept fitfully through the night. She had attended the opening party for only a short time, not wanting to be part of the all-night extravaganza when her confidence and head were so badly shaken. Instead of partying with the other players and coaches, she had spent most of her night sitting beside Remy while nursing a tall glass of Lenox's famous champagne.

Past experience had taught her how dangerous the stuff was, but it was the main drink served at the party besides water, and she was craving something strong enough to take the edge off of her nerves and various fears. Watching the X-men dance with some of the players from another not-so-popular team had made her feel a little better. But it was mainly Remy's warm arm curved around her waist that brought her the most comfort.

As per the usual, the Cajun had been able to sense her mood before she even realized what was going through her head. He had kept the hand resting on her hip busy most of the night, by drawing gentle circles along her hipbone with his thumb. The motion reassured her and forced the grumpy girl to smile at the boy a few times during the night. She knew how blessed she was to have Remy by her side and tried to focus on his random jokes and stupid lines as the noise of the party wore on.

Watching Remy had comforted her in other ways as well, since she was able to avoid looking at Jude and the girl who had rarely left his side throughout the night. It was strange, in fact, it was almost unheard of, to see a Lenox party where neither Rogue nor Jude made any effort to talk to the other. They remained on opposite sides of the room through most of the night and only caught each other's gaze once. Rogue had never considered Jude to be as obstinate as her, but it seemed they had both said enough to hurt each other pretty deep.

"If he would just believe what I told him." She mumbled and punched her pillow to try and get comfortable, "Whatever happened to the guy who trusted me to run a whole kingdom? How could he not believe Victoria is up to something?!"

As she settled back into the warm blanket she tried to push the idea of Jude and Victoria out of her head. If they wanted to get together in some stupid way, she didn't care. She warned him about the girl and he wouldn't listen. He deserved whatever she did to him.

Even as the thought rambled around in her angry brain, she knew it wasn't right. Jude may be a jerk who didn't believe her feelings about Victoria, but he was still her friend. Whether he liked it or not, she just couldn't let Victoria get close to him. She wasn't going to let Jude or anyone else she loved get hurt on her watch.

Sleep was lost to her as she continued to toss and turn in her bed. She was almost starting to regret not giving into Remy's pleas to stay the night in her room, but figured a midnight snack would be an easier solution to her insomnia. There was no chance of accidently absorbing a bowl of ice cream, unlike the flirty Cajun who would have probably pulled a dumb move and gotten knocked out in no time flat.

As she walked through the quiet mansion, she realized that it must have been later than she expected. Unlike the castle in Kurt, where she had taken the authority to install more digital clocks, the Meridan mansion was decorated with a very traditional theme that included large grandfather clocks and other ornate looking timepieces, which unfortunately did not glow in the dark. She expected the party to still be going strong, but the entire place was eerily peaceful.

"Wouldn't hurt them to put in some nightlights in these halls." She mumbled as her foot suddenly tripped over something hard and she was sent to the floor in a messy heap. The next thing Rogue heard, besides her own grumbles, was a voice mumbling something nearby. She couldn't see exactly how she had fallen to the floor or what she had tripped over, but she ignored it to focus on stranger problems and flew off towards the sound of the voice.

She found the source, an upset Victoria, standing in the mansion's front yard with her eyes focused on one of the large front walls of the building. Smeared across the giant canvass was a rather unnerving message; ' _The Bloody Revolution Will Come To Lenox!_ '. The graffiti was so large that it easily took up two and a half stories of the house. Whoever had made this must have worked quicker than any graffiti artist Rogue had ever seen. _How could they have covered so much space in a place like this without being spotted_? She wondered as her eyes looked back to Victoria's face. The girl had lost her surprised expression and seemed cool as a cucumber now. It was as if she had walked outside and seen nothing but flowers plastered all over the wall.

"What happened here?!" Rogue demanded of her cousin, who took a step back at the sound of the loud voice.

"What?" She said never losing her poised demeanor, " _I_ don't know. I just found the wall like this."

Before Rogue could get any more answers from the girl, the lights in the front of the house flipped on and people began to flood out of the mansion having been awoken by Rogue's yells. They all strode out in a mixture of confusion and annoyance as to why they had been pulled out of their comfy beds at such an hour, until they looked at the graffiti. A few of the girls gasped and Kurt put his hand over his mouth in silent shock. They knew there had been troubling brewing, since it was the main reason their team had been formed, but the idea that someone could pull a stunt like this so close to them was frightening.

"What happened?" Jude asked the girls, whom everyone seemed to realize had been the only two outside.

"Jude," Rogue took the leap and prayed that her friend would believe her this time, "I think I know." She pulled him to the side as best she could and tried to speak privately with him despite the nearby crowd, "I came out here and found her standing in front of the wall. She didn't look scared or anything. That has to be suspicious, even to you. I told you that there is something strange about her, and what excuse could she have for being out here at this time of night anyway?"

Instead of the affirmative nod of understanding she had been waiting for, Jude merely sighed and rubbed his temple. He looked at her disheveled hair and big green eyes and for the first time started to wonder what was happening to his friend. Why was she so determined to throw Victoria under the bus? Where was the girl who had been willing to fight any monster to save her family?

"Stop this, Alex," He finally told her in a calm, yet stern tone. "You aren't making any sense."

" _I'm_ not making sense?" She glared at him and poked his chest so firmly that he was pushed a step back, "You are the one who isn't making any sense. I keep telling you that there is something wrong and you refuse to believe me. I know what I am talking about, Judah."

"No, you don't."

"Oh, yeah? I don't understand these things?" Her anger and hurt bubbled up to a boiling point and let her mouth snap out a quick and biting statement, "Which one of us was it that trusted Griffin and sent me off with a fake Axel again?"

She regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. Rogue knew in her heart that the incident with Griffin had been one of Jude's biggest regrets. She had defended him and told him again and again that she knew he couldn't have known it was really Griffin in disguise, but now all of her support, despite it's truthfulness, was pointless. She had hurt Jude to his very being and could only stand there mumbling a soft apology as he took a step back from her.

"Thank you for _your_ opinion, Rogue."

Instead of yelling at her and calling her some list of colorful words, Jude's brow dipped down and he answered in a voice that was so firm and dethatched that it really surprised Rogue. She had only heard him use that tone once or twice before when he had been chastising Griffin for picking on her before they knew she was the real princess. Now he stood in front of her and used the same acrimonious tone to push her away and protect Victoria.

Jude turned to the people gathered around and started to give orders immediately. He assigned guards to scrub the building and keep closer watch over the area before trying to convince everyone that the mansion was still safe. The biggest wound, for Rogue, had been watching him gently take Victoria's arm and lead her back towards the house. The others followed his lead and seemed to believe they really were safe now that the guards were on high alert.

Rogue remained frozen to her spot, unable to fathom the idea that she no longer seemed to have any respect in her friend's eyes. Remy placed his arm around her shoulders and gave the top of her head a gentle kiss. She breathed in the scent of his cologne and watched as Victoria and Jude neared the front door. The girl picked her free hand up from her side briefly, and Rogue spotted what she was almost certain was a red paint stain on the base of her palm. She jerked slightly at the sight, but before she could say anything the girl's hand slid into her pocket and the pair disappeared into the house.

"There is something wrong with her." She mumbled to Remy, knowing full well that he could probably hear the pain in her voice. "Something isn't right here, Rems."

The boy whispered something into her hair that the girl couldn't understand and hugged her to his chest protectively. He made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Victoria, but he also kept a side note in his head to figure out what exactly was going on between Rogue and Jude. He refused to jump to any conclusions despite the flood of angry, hurt, and extremely unpleasant emotions racing through him, but the way she seemed to be pining over Jude by attacking any woman who got close to him, was like a kick in the heart to the young man.


	6. Catch Me If You Can

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I also do not own the title song 'Catch Me If You Can' by** **Angela Via.**

 **Thank you for reading the past chapter everyone. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at the newest chapter. Thanks to Mrs. Jehilew for her very lovely reviews. :).**

 **Anywho here is the newest chapter:**

* * *

With the rising of the sun, came the start of the games and a new round of mysterious whispers throughout the people about possible radicals hiding in their midst. The guards had worked throughout the night to scrub off the paint decorating the mansion, but even their hard work had not been able to completely erase the strangeness of the night. A good section of the painted threats was still glaring at the X-men as they left the mansion to report for the first event.

"Rogue's gonna go through that thing?" Kitty asked with trepidation as they neared the flying course for the first event.

The monster sized course took up the length of at least three football fields and was coated with various floating rings that seemed harmless enough, till a few were suddenly set ablaze by flying course workers. Unlike the rest of her team, Rogue never lost a step when the flames popped out and were soon joined by some rather sharp looking spikes on a few higher placed obstacles. Above their heads was a twisting tunnel maze that seemed to have a few choices that led to nothing but dead ends. Every few minutes, the long pieces suddenly awoke and flipped places making what once was the correct path wrong.

Remy shifted his weight to his other foot and tried to map out the pattern for the race in his head. He didn't doubt that Rogue could make it through the course. She was a talented flyer and had shown she was capable of completing dangerous missions if put to the test. Yes, she was a skilled competitor, but she was also a flawed one. He looked down at the girl who was staring at Victoria stretching only a few yards away instead of focusing on her challenge.

Victoria was pretty. Any male with a beating heart and a pair of eyes could tell that she was damn attractive. The spandex suit she wore, most likely for its aerodynamic purposes, only helped to illustrate the curves of her hips and the rest of her fit appearance. As far as he could tell, she was just like any other attractive and popular girl known to ruffle Rogue's feathers. It was no secret to most of the X-men that she had been jealous of Jean for her popularity and looks, whether Rogue wanted to admit it or not. Either way, she had put up with Jean for ages and made only a few protests and grumpy pouts, so it seemed feasible to the rugged man that Rogue could pull herself together and focus on the task at hand.

 _Then there is Jude_. He thought with distaste as the blonde suddenly approached Victoria. Remy watched them smile at each other and briefly embrace. The gesture was so quick and supposedly unfeeling that it almost looked like the man had hugged a business acquaintance instead of a beautiful girl in a superhero costume. Despite the coolness, Remy's common sense had already formed an opinion that there was more than just a friendship between those two. Whatever it was they had going on between them, as he looked back at Rogue's bitter expression he realized it was seriously messing with his girlfriend's sanity.

"Care to look at your course, Chere?" He mumbled the reply into her ear and watched, as she suddenly seemed to realize she was not alone.

By the time the announcement came over the speakers for the first round of flyers to take their marks at the starting line, Remy had watched Rogue stumble through a brief stretch routine and a few last minute outfit checks to make sure she had nothing on her costume that would add any extra weight. If she had just been able to put her normal amount of focus into the tasks, he was almost certain that she could have been a real threat to the other flyers. But the look of distance in her eyes as she accepted the well wishes of her friends, before walking off to the starting line made Remy think twice. Unless Rogue could get her mind together, she was going to be left in the dust.

"Chere," He pulled her aside and watched her large emerald eyes search his face for something he couldn't recognize. "You can do this if you just focus. Don't let them get to you."

"Yeah." She nodded her head and offered him a smile that seemed bleak compared to the beautiful grins he had watched her produce when they fought and flirted in the past. "I got this."

"Keep focused, mon coeur." He kissed her gloved hand and offered a quick wink to try and raise her spirits, "Maybe if you win we can have our own private celebration tonight, no?"

She rolled her eyes at him and snapped out a comment that made the weight on his chest lift a little. The real spunky and wild Rogue was still in that mess of worry and disappointment; he just had to find a way to bring her out of this funk. If only she would have agreed to let him beat up a certain blonde…

As Rogue stood at the starting line, she began to take a quick look at the competition beside her. The man to her left was far taller than her but had the tiniest bit of a belly protruding through his fitted shirt. She chalked it up to a possible lack of commitment to his training and figured he might be a little less driven than the others. To her right were Victoria and another woman who was smaller and meeker than the other female challengers. On her back was a pair of extremely large silver wings that she stretched nervously as they took their positions. With less weight to move and a pair of wings that large, Rogue figured she would probably be the toughest competitor.

The starting pistol sounded before Rogue could totally pull her mind back from her own thoughts. She flew from the line as fast as she could, but had trouble catching up to others who had only a second head start. When they hit the first round of rings, she was able to pass the only man in their group and zoom up to the winged girl. They battled side-by-side; desperate for even a second of time difference as they swung through the various markers.

A wild spark from one of the flame rings hit the edges of the girl's feathers when they started the highest climb into the sky. The girl let out a scream of pain and immediately dropped down multiple feet, putting her at an almost inescapable disadvantage. Internally, Rogue felt a sudden urge to go and make sure she was okay, but she tried to ignore the feeling and push forward to the highest ring since they were in the middle of a contest.

As her body shot through the last wide circle and she started the sudden downward fall to the tunnel maze, she finally caught sight of Victoria. The girl moved with impressive skill through each ring that greeted her on the downward plunge. Rogue fought the urge to call Victoria a skilled opponent, but as she struggled to make it through each of the far spaced rings in hot pursuit, she relented to herself that the course was not exactly easy. It wasn't as if Rogue wasn't a talented flyer, though. As she zoomed through the last ring and hit the tunnel she could see Victoria's shoes, proving the girl's lead was being diminished with each passing minute.

Inside the maze-like tunnels, a new sensation greeted Rogue; darkness. Anyone would know that a tunnel would be dark, but she had assumed there would be a lot more light streaming through the plastic material the tunnel was made of. She remembered the tunnels she crawled through, as a kid in the park had always been full of light from the bold sun rays shining down. This tunnel seemed to be unaware that the sun was even up in the sky. As she tried to keep her speed high enough to catch Victoria, she silently prayed that her various choices of turns would lead to the right exit.

"Not bad!" Victoria's voice floated through the wide tunnel and sent Rogue's head swerving back and forth to try and locate the girl.

"You're better than I would have thought."

The second comment was louder, and if she concreted she could tell it was coming from somewhere on the right. She could barely see her hand in front of her face, but Rogue twisted her course and shot over to the right thinking it may lead to an exit. She saw no signs of Victoria as she picked up speed once more, determined to catch the girl even if she ran into a wall trying.

The sudden pain hit her without warning and forced her to instantly regret even joking about hitting a wall. She couldn't identify what was going on, but something had definitely attacked her. Why else would she feel such a strong, searing pain coursing through her back? It was as if her very spine had been hit by a semi, forcing her to curl into a ball for a moment and drift off course.

As the pain started to subside, she felt a new, formidable fire begin to race through her chest. This round had nothing to do with attacking your opponents! It was just supposed to be speed trials to get the first round of data before the more serious levels started. If Victoria thought she was going to get away with those kinds of dirty tricks, she was sorely mistaken. The growl that escaped her throat sounded more primal than she expected, but it only served to further her cause as she pushed her speed to its max level.

Somehow, possibly during her moment of anger and weakness, the tunnels had shifted their position once again. As soon as she flew forward, she felt the plastic wall shatter against her force. Pieces flew down to the field giving the audience a small shower of dark blue plastic rain as she continued her onslaught through the air and right past the finish marker.

The landing was extremely ungraceful, due to an increased speed and lack of self-control, but she was up from the floor seconds after creating a small dirt trail. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the field and located her target only a few feet away. Victoria seemed unaffected by her cousin's brash show and rough landing. She stared back at the matching green eyes with an expression that almost seemed annoyed Rogue was angry with her once again.

"So you want to play dirty?" The girl growled out in a deep voice as she stomped over to Victoria and somehow managed to avoid shoving her into the stands, "If you have a problem with me than settle it with me. Don't try some cheap ass stunt in a dark tunnel!"

" _I_ _have a problem with you_?" Victoria's voice was firm, but she kept it diplomatic due to her years, upon years, of etiquette lessons. She refused to break down and start yelling and cursing in public like her cousin. "You seem to be the one who has a problem with me, cousin."

"I know you painted that wall and I know that you just tried to blindside me in that tunnel! And who knows what you are doing to Jude. He may not be able to see that you are up to something, but I can see everything."

"What she is doing, to Jude" Jude's voice suddenly joined their conversation as he walked up to the scene, "is dating him, Rogue."

Rogue watched with unblinking eyes as Jude's hand grasped Victoria's and their fingers intertwined smoothly. The look covering Victoria's eyes was a mix of stress and relief upon seeing Jude appear at her side. As he smiled sweetly back at her, Rogue mentally tried to swallow the sight before her. She knew that they had supposedly been working closely to put on these games for the past few months, but when had that line crossed from coworkers to a romantic relationship?

"You what?" She stammered out as the announcers above them declared Victoria the winner and announced Alex would be given a penalty for completing the race through a self-made tunnel exit, putting her into third place behind the only male in their race group.

"I think you heard," Jude's voice held that same low quality that harkened back to his days of dealing with Griffin.

Rogue rubbed her head suddenly feeling as if everything she once thought she knew for certain was being tested. She couldn't trust her friend, she couldn't trust the people of Lenox to get along with the Morphs, and she definitely couldn't trust her so-called cousin. Wasn't there anything in this place that was staying the same? Her head began to pound harder as the self-doubt and anger twisted together into an unhealthy combination fueling the fire in her body. She couldn't do this anymore.

With one last look to the person she had once trusted deeply, she shot into the sky and flew away from the madness and the noise. She needed to be by herself to try and get her thoughts straightened out before anyone else could throw another curveball at her. Below her feet, she could hear the X-men yelling up at her to come back, but she ignored the voices and couldn't recall when they eventually crossed into the land of silence like the rest of her thoughts.

She wasn't sure when her flight finally stopped, but as she floated to the ground, she instantly realized where she had landed. The large stone statues almost looked like they were touching the sky, which was decorated in beautiful shades of pink and yellow as the sun set in the distance. There was an unexpected comfort in the calmness of the four dark stone pillars because it was the closest she could be to her lost family members.

The largest of the towers was situated behind a waist high square of marble that housed the only writing on the entire landmark. She ran her hands over the words, 'For all the lives lost in the attack on the castle,' and let her mind wander briefly back to the image of her dad smiling down at her at the beach. She hadn't mentioned the incident to anyone, even her mother, for fear of what they would think of her. Besides, she felt the reunion was private enough to be kept just between her and her lost loved ones.

She pulled her hand back instantly as the words ended and the date of her sixth birthday appeared on the stone. Lydia had been against putting the date of the attack on the memorial statue for fear of how her daughter would feel, but Rogue had pushed her into agreeing to display it. It may have been her birthday once, but now it was a date that she hoped would never be forgotten for its newer significance. Hiding the date would be like trying to pretend the animosity and hatred hadn't reared up and destroyed her family. The last thing she would have would be letting her father and siblings be lost to the pages of history.

"You would have listened," She mumbled allowing herself a moment of pity since she felt closer to her father in the shadow of his memorial marker. "Then again, you probably would have been able to create peace throughout the entire stinkin' dimension by now…"

She sat down on the bench placed in the middle of the landmark and tried to picture what her father would say if he were there. From what she had read in the book her mother had given her, Thomas Lenox had been one of the most adamant supporters of Morph rights. He had been trying, before his untimely end, to create a new policy that would try to make a line of communication with the Morphs possible. From his notes in the book, she found out the measure had been poorly received in the council meetings and gained him quite a few angry rants from concerned council members.

"You'd be willing to fight for what you knew was right…" She muttered to herself and lay on the bench as the strangely intense fire began to grow in her belly again. "You were going to make it possible even if you had to fight all by yourself. You were willing to resort to whatever you had to do..." The fire began to increase, giving her a bizarre sense of confidence, "And that is exactly what I'm going to do. There will be peace in Lenox, no matter what I have to do."

She closed her eyes to picture what method she could take to uncover the secrets hiding around her and felt her pounding headache ease as she started to picture throwing her true weight around the dimension. She had the authority to make things happen and some strange chord in her chest started to swell as she imagined herself taking charge. It was weird to enjoy the idea of having power, but a new force was starting to blossom in her mind and heart creating that same strange warmth she had been feeling lately.

When she opened her eyes again, the sky was dark and she could see nothing but stars above her. Her limbs were sore and seemed to be aching with each movement she forced out of them. Whether it was falling asleep on a stone bench that had caused the pain or if it was a delayed reaction from the flying course, she didn't know. Despite the pain slowly coursing through her joints, she flew off to make it back to Meridan before her mother or the X-men sent out some type of search party.

Meridan wasn't close to the memorial statue outside of the city of Kurt, but it was an easy distance to cover when she used her full speed. She expected everyone to be fast asleep in their beds, due to the late hour, but as she approached she immediately noticed a group of mutants and guards standing near the main ceremony stage. Their voices were strong and seemed to be growing angrier by the second, as she flew closer and dropped to the ground.

"Where you been, Chere?" Remy's voice greeted her from his spot next to Kurt and Logan only a few feet away.

"I went flying," She answered quickly, desperate to know what was going on now, "What happened here?"

"Another attack," Kurt told her with a distant look in his bright eyes.

She couldn't imagine what was big enough to force the presence of so many people, but as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd she was greeted with a shocking sight she had somehow missed since the crowd had taken her attention. Instead of a large stage and beautiful decorations, there was complete destruction.

The stage had been turned into nothing more than broken pieces of lumber haphazardly piled amongst the torn decorations and smashed sculptures. The banner that had once displayed the proud emblem of the games was torn into shreds that blew in the wind like depressing streamers. In place of the peaceful backdrop cover, was a new paint job that declared, ' _The Blood Of The People Will Flood The Streets!_ '.

"Please," She came up to one of the many guards trying to rope off the area, and noted how they all immediately gave her their full attention, "Tell me someone saw what happened."

"Actually," the guard pointed over to another guard currently being treated by a medical staffer, "This time, we have an eyewitness to the event."

The mere mention of someone who could point a finger at the mysterious attacker gave Rogue a flash of hope. This would finally put everything to rest and prove that either she was right about Victoria or that there was someone else to look for. After the paint smear on the woman's hand the night before, Rogue was almost certain that the guard would tell her exactly what she wanted to hear.


	7. Naps And Fireworks Do Not Mix

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thank you for reading the previous chapter everyone! I appreciate you taking time out of your busy days to look at this chapter. Thank you to tx peppa for the lovely review.**

 **Here is the newest chapter:**

* * *

According to the medical staff, the guard had been far too rattled and injured to be questioned that night. The news had devastated Rogue, but she knew that she couldn't push someone that medically fragile for answers. While he recovered the next day in the main Meridan hospital, she tried to keep her attention on anything else. Since the first round of the psychic challenges was starting that day, she forced herself to try and be a good sport and cheer on Jean and Storm as they entered the ring.

The girls had been through at least two practice rounds, but they were still unprepared when placed next to their opponents; a hulking pair of men who seemed built more for weight lifting than focusing on their mental abilities. Either way, the pair seemed to be willing to play fairly with the Earth team and even offered a friendly handshake before the competition started.

As they sat in the stands, Rogue tried to ignore the smell of popcorn and other fair foods drifting around her. She could barely focus on the match in front of her eyes since her brain was still sitting with the guard recuperating in the hospital. A graffiti incident was one thing, but now that they had someone directly injured from the mysterious actions, the whole thing seemed far more serious. If the attacks escalated to an even higher degree there could be a real danger to everyone.

Lydia and Rogue had both tried to talk the head of the games into either pausing or delaying the events. As much as they wanted to foster peace between the groups, it wasn't worth putting everyone at risk. The chance for grave injuries was growing steadily and without more information on who was doing these attacks; they were at a serious disadvantage to try and stop anything or defend themselves.

The acts of possibly anti-Morph threats had given the Morph only team a new sense of purpose. They had been adamant that the games continue and that they have a chance to prove they were skilled competitors who would not be deterred by any threat. Following their lead, the majority of the other teams had sent representatives requesting that the games continue as scheduled. Unlike the Morphs, who had been using the contest as a sense of pride, some of the other teams claimed it was more to do with the past traditions of the Lenox people being honored as well as not being punished with a delayed game just because some random Morphs were causing trouble.

Not one team captain who had stopped by to talk with the queen and the game representatives had appeared to be upset that someone was possibly targeting the Morphs with vague warnings. The general consensus seemed to be that it was the Morphs' fault for stirring up trouble in the dimension. The Lenoxians had never had any problems at the games until the Morphs began to demand their own unique team. Thanks to Lydia's gentle words of wisdom and calming shoulder squeezes, Rogue had managed to avoid tearing the more snotty team captains' a new one.

So, as they sat in the stands in silence, Rogue felt her own mind continue to wander off to places far beyond the competition. She had already heard a few of the people behind her whisper that it was quite possible her loyalties were not entirely focused on the Lenox people, but she tried to ignore the voices every time she caught wind of them. If she could look past the fact Morphs had destroyed her family, why couldn't the people of Lenox look past their differences? She had far more problems to deal with when it came to Morphs and yet here she was sitting side-by-side with the half-morph she called her brother.

"Did you see that?" Kurt cheered and shook Rogue's shoulder; "Storm just threw a giant piece of hail at that guy!"

Broken from her inner monologue, Rogue spared a glance to the field where Storm was currently creating quite a magnificent thunderstorm on the field. The hail fell wildly around the competitor's side of the field and sent the man trying to attack Jean stumbling backward. He tried to counter by tossing what looked like a ball of light at Storm, but she threw it right back at him with a sudden gust of wind.

Kitty, Kurt, and Jamie let out a large cheer, before attempting to start a wave, while Logan, who was sitting below their spot in the stands, groaned and rubbed his ear. Despite his displeasure at the general idea of this competition, he had appeared much more focused once Ororo had stepped into the ring. It had always been an idea whispered around the mansion that there could be something going on between Storm and Logan, but the small grin on his face as he watched Storm sock the guy with another large ice ball was the closest thing to proof they had ever seen.

When the dust settled and Storm and Jean stood high on the first place podium, the entire X-men section let out a large round of applause. It was the first real win they could put on their board, besides Rogue's rough placing in third during the flight races. The moment seemed positive enough, even pushing some of the teams that had scoffed at an Earth team into applauding and cheering for the two talented women.

It was decided not long after, by one of the more hyper brunette teammates, that the victory 'totally deserved a like, celebration lunch'. The majority of the group wandered off towards the large cafeteria sitting on the far side of the wide spread field, agreeing that an event like that was worth savoring. Still feeling a little queasy at the thought of eating anything, Rogue declined the offer to join the victory party and decided to head back to the house to try and rest before the next contest started.

She hadn't picked up when he started to follow her, but as she stepped into the mansion she left the door open behind her for Remy to slip inside. He had stayed with her during the multiple hours of searching through the stage rubble for any kind of clue, and she figured he was feeling as fatigued as she was. A yawn pulled at the corner of her mouth as she and her handsome shadow easily walked towards her bedroom.

Once the door was closed and they were left alone again, she sat on the edge of the bed and offered him a good-natured grin, "If you are here for anything more than a nap, you are going to be completely disappointed Swamp Rat."

"You really know how to hurt a guy, don't you Chere?" He smiled at her and crossed the room with only a few long strides, "You really should eat something you know."

"Not hungry," She shrugged her shoulders and noted how bright his eyes were shining as they looked into her own pair, "You?"

"All Remy crave is a green eyed girl," He leaned forward and glanced in her eyes momentarily before placing his warm lips on top of her own pair.

She detested the fact that each encounter she had with her boyfriend started with a double check to see if she was ready to control her power. Sure, he had snuck a few touches here and there and got his butt zapped immediately, but the majority of their moments together seemed far more planned than she would have liked. Maybe it was selfish, but as Remy pulled away from their kiss, she realized how desperately she wanted full control and not just a rusty sense of control that worked only if she thought hard enough. She could only imagine how frustrated Remy had to be with their current situation.

The Cajun gently pushed her back on the bed and snuggled close enough to her that her back was flush against his front. He held her lovingly and smiled when he noticed a small grin of comfort and security spread across her face. It had been far too long since he last held his southern spitfire and he wasn't going to waste the moment. Tenderly, he kissed her covered shoulder and took in the strange flowery scent that drifted from her hair.

Somewhere between the warmth and comfort of his embrace, Rogue let herself drift off to a deep sleep. It had been a while since she had gotten a full night's rest, and though the nap was only about two hours long, when she opened her eyes once again she felt a small sense of calmness wash over her. Even with the craziness of her life, she had the warmth of Remy's arms to come back to and it eased her troubled mind slightly.

"Wake up, already Alex?" He grumbled using her real name to prove how much he disliked the idea of leaving their warm little moment to rejoin the outside world. "Remy not ready to let go." He grumbled playfully and rolled over her so he could lay on top of her and pin her to the bed.

Rogue laughed softly at his antics and let out a sigh, "You know I have to go check on the guard, Rems."

"Non," He shook his head and after sparing one glance at her eyes, kissed her neck, "Guard don' need us now. He got lots of people watchin' him."

The sleep coating still hovering over Remy's words gave them an even thicker accent. She relented slightly to his request and let her own hand gently rub his back. The boy grinned in happiness, thinking he had won a longer moment with his girlfriend and gave her a wink, "See, Remy's idea be more fun."

"Remy's idea will have to wait." She offered and tried to gently push him off of her. The boy lay like dead weight and mumbled something into her hair about being too tired to move. She rolled her eyes at his dramatics and offered her own threat, "You gonna make me push your butt off this bed, Cajun?"

"Could be fun." He whispered into her ear and chuckled as she blinked nervously and looked away from his eyesight, "Remy always thought his Roguey liked the rough stuff."

The teasing comment forced her to push him to the other side of the bed a little harder than necessary. Remy, unfazed by the movement, simply grinned like a fool and watched her sit up on the bed. He was glad for the contact they could have, but it didn't mean his mind hadn't wandered into ideas of what it would be like when Rogue finally had real control over her mutation. He had waited for Rogue to be near him for long enough to have considered quite a few possibilities of how they could celebrate her eventual control.

"I'd take a cold shower if I were you." She informed him and watched his eyebrow rise inquisitively.

"Only if Remy gets a little company in there." The comment earned him another eye roll and a view of Rogue walking away from him and over to her dresser.

Unlike Remy, whose brain was still trying to remain somewhere between the land of sleep and romance, Rogue was already snapping back to action. She looked over the top of her dresser, hoping to see a note from one of the other mansion guards that would update her on the status of the injured guard. When she couldn't find anything on the top of or on the floor near the dresser, she sighed and rummaged through her drawers for a hairbrush she had thrown haphazardly into them while unpacking. Of course, her version of unpacking had consisted of merely throwing the contents of her bags into various drawers. If it hadn't been for the maids in the mansion being so upset with her organizational skills and taking it upon themselves to put freshly ironed outfits in her closet, Rogue would have most likely been seen only in over wrinkled pieces during her entire stay at the games.

When she couldn't find the brush in the drawer, she started to search the bathroom for the missing item. She found it in one of the many drawers and started to untangle her curls as quickly as she could. Both Remy and she were supposed to show up and support Kitty in the first round of her first event, and if she didn't hurry she wouldn't have a chance to stop by the hospital for news before heading out to the field.

Remy watched her move around the room in such a hurry with a long sigh. He knew that look in her eyes meant she was back to overthinking and worrying, and that any sleeping in plans were effectively canceled for the foreseeable future. He sat up and ran a hand through his own disheveled hair before pulling out a pack of cards to keep his hands busy. Watching Rogue act so nervous gave him an uncomfortable sense of growing tension. The one thing he couldn't figure out was if it was more fear of what she might do next or whom she might be thinking about.

She had stared at Jude and Victoria throughout a small portion of the earlier match. The two hadn't done anything interesting, they hadn't even kissed once, but Rogue had stared at them with such a bitter expression that he would never forget the look in her eyes. The small flare of jealousy raged through his body and threatened to light up the entire deck of cards being shuffled over and over again.

"You know," he took a more serious tone as Rogue spared him a curious glance, "The guard is in safe hands. The moment anything is discovered, there will be tons of them guards searching for the guy who did this stuff."

"I know." She admitted and stood firmly in front of him, "But I need to hear it for myself, Remy. I need to know. He is the only person who can prove that Victoria is up to no good."

"Chere," He took a slow breath to calm the growing emotions in his mind and laid the deck of cards on the bedspread.

When Rogue had disappeared after the flying competition, he had taken a few hours to shadow Victoria. He didn't think that there was anything solid to Rogue's claims that she was trouble, but he respected his girlfriend enough to at least look into her statements. The entire mission had proved completely fruitless, though. Victoria was squeaky clean, to the point of being boring as dirt, as far as he could tell. She practiced with her teammates, spent time with Jude, and went to bed. The only thing she had going against her was apparently her interest in a particular blonde man.

"You really think she is behind all this?" He noted the immediate look of displeasure flash across her once bright eyes and steadied himself for another round of the bizarrely over exaggerated anger that seemed to be flowing out of her more and more often now, "I followed her for hours last night and she didn't do anything suspicious."

"So you don't believe me either?" She demanded of him unfairly, her hands on her hips, "You think I am as crazy as Jude does?"

"Never said you were crazy." He stood up from the bed and let his own face firm into a slight frown as days of silent jealousy threatened to slip out of his guarded head, "Just sayin' you don't have any proof."

"Once the guard wakes up I will have all the proof I need!"

"Why are you really so obsessed, Rogue?" The statement was blunt, but she could easily feel the emotions charging his question, "Is it really about the people of Lenox or are you just thinking about Jude?"

"I am thinking about everyone!" She stared him down and tried to defend herself from the unspoken accusation, "I know there is something wrong with Victoria and I have to help Jude and save everyone else."

The pair stared at each other in silence for a long moment, neither wanting to back down from their stance. Remy had tried to ignore the pangs of jealousy that crept into his system each time Rogue flew into another tirade about Jude and Victoria, but it was no longer possible to keep his voice calm and his thoughts collected. All he could see was the way she watched Jude with those big, sad eyes that used to spend time sparkling in his direction as they shared special moments. Now all he ever heard was, 'Jude this…' and 'Jude that…' and it was pulling at his last nerve.

"Just quit this damn act, Rogue! We both know the only person you are interested in is Jude." He disliked feeling his emotions flaring out without his brain being part of the mix, but he still added under his breath, "Interested in kissin' at least."

"Excuse me?!" She demanded of him, feeling her own anger flood out of her mouth as quickly as his.

"He's a big boy. He don't need you protecting him from beautiful women!" The comment was bit out with true anger as Remy let his emotions get the better of him; "The only thing Victoria has done wrong was date the guy you can't get over."

The comment struck Rogue harder than she expected it too. Seeing Remy's bright eyes shrink into angry orbs and his words change from supportive to bitter seriously shook her confidence. Besides the hurt feelings of losing the last person she thought was really on her side, a new anger began to grow over her heart. How dare he accuse her of being romanticly interested in Jude! Sure they had been a somewhat item, but that was over. She was dating Remy and the idea that he could question her loyalty to the relationship forced a bitter shell to grow over her heart.

"Well good news for you, Remy LeBeau," She growled out and stalked to the door, "Not only am I over Jude but I may just be over a certain Swamp Rat, too!"

The flight over to the hospital did little to calm her mind. She kept replaying the scene with Remy in her bedroom and found with each replaying the emotions came back with new strength. She must have been unable to hide the pain tearing at her heart since even her mother tried to question her when she entered the large building. Thankfully, Lydia had been willing to give her daughter some space on the subject and had even informed her that the guard was conscious once again.

Inside the large private suite, the guard was sitting propped up with large pillows. He was a large man, with an impressively sized piece of gauze covering a great deal of the left side of his face. The right didn't seem too much better, with its various bruises creating a heart-wrenching painting of black and blue on his face. Despite his condition, he offered both Lydia and Rogue a formal salute as they entered his room. In the corner of the room, was uncle William sitting in the comfiest looking chair in the sterile area, while his cane rested only a few feet away.

Due to the games still being played on their regular schedule, Rogue figured Victoria wouldn't show up to this meeting. She and Jude had seemed deeply involved with the games, and her uncle probably still had more power in this town than Victoria anyway. So it made sense that he would be the Meridan representative for the investigation.

"Please, tell me who did this." Rogue, still riding an emotional roller coaster, skipped pleasantries and jumped right to the question at hand.

The others in the room shared surprised glances, but only Lydia dared to frown at her daughter and offer a verbal reminder that they needed to let the guard take things easy. With her daughter dealt with, Lydia turned back to the guard. She asked him how he was feeling and if he would mind answering a few questions about what had happened. When he readily agreed, the other guards in the room started to open their notebooks to write down any information he could offer.

"I didn't get a good look at the woman. I was checking out the area before I went to change places with another guard, and I noticed a woman fly to the stage and start destroying things." He paused in his story and took a long drink of water from a cup on his bedside table.

"A woman?" Rogue perked up immediately, "You're sure it was a girl?"

The man nodded his head, then grimaced as the action irritated his head wound.

"Can you tell us what she looked like?"

He opened his mouth and then shut it again as if he wasn't sure how to describe what he had seen.

"Please, I need to know. Was she tall or short? What color hair?"

The man took a deep breath and finally looked at Rogue, "Actually, Your Highness, she looked quite a lot like you." The room grew still as the nervous man spoke up again, despite the strange feeling of saying an attacker could be similar to the princess, "What I mean is, I only saw the back of her. She had brown hair like yours and was similar in size and build."

The words echoed around in Rogue's head as if she had been given the answer to an unsolvable problem. If this culprit looked as similar to her as the man said, then she was almost certain that she had all the proof she needed. All she had to do now was find Victoria and get the truth from the source.


	8. Your Eyes

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thank you guys and gals for reading the previous chapter. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to read the newest chapter, too. And thanks to tx peppa for her nice review. Here is the newest chapter:**

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As Rogue stomped into the mansion's main library, she finally spotted the person she had been searching for non-stop over the past four hours.

She hadn't outright declared she was certain Victoria was the culprit, thinking it might not have gone over so well in the hospital room, but she had told her mother of her beliefs the moment they were alone in the hall. Lydia, like all of the others, had been unable to picture someone like Victoria secretly spray painting houses and attacking stages. At least her letdown had been gentler than everyone else's when she tried to question her daughter's reasoning behind her firm thoughts about Victoria.

At the end of the discussion, it still came down to the same idea that there was no certain proof that Victoria was the one behind the madness. It was beginning to drive Rogue insane that no one seemed to find things like a paint stain on her hand and a physical description that matched Victoria seriously. Sure, as her mom had mentioned to her in a far too calm voice for her liking, there were a lot of people in Lenox that had deep brown hair and a height around five foot six. It just wasn't enough to convince her to label Victoria as the mysterious attacker. She at least promised to tell the main investigators of Alex's concerns.

In the end, it just wasn't enough for the overcharged princess to handle sitting down. Whether anyone believed her or not, she was going to get the truth out of Victoria. Even if she had to force it out of the girl; Rogue was going to get an answer to all of the weirdness. The strangest part was that, way back in the recesses of her mind, the rage starting to build up in her chest was actually beginning to scare her a little too.

She could admit, if pushed to her limit, that maybe she was a little too concerned with Victoria, but there was something in her heart that had pushed common sense to the wayside long ago. There was no real verbal way to describe the feeling, but a new storm was brewing inside her that fueled the entire drive to take control of the situation. It was becoming harder and harder to control the sensations running through her veins and she prayed that she could keep it together long enough to figure out what was going on in Lenox.

"Alexandria," Victoria greeted her cousin with a somewhat cold stare, that wasn't too out of place considering their last interaction had been so charged.

"I talked to the guard." She spoke slowly and tried to keep her emotions level, "I know you are against everything I have tried to do for the people of this dimension."

" _The people_?" Victoria took a step closer to Rogue and finally let her polite outer shell start to crack, "The only people you have been showing any care for is the Morphs. You haven't spared a single thought to the people of this dimension that are just trying to live their lives and raise their families."

"So you admit it? You're the one who did all this just to stop the Morphs from living here!"

Victoria stared at her cousin as if she had lost the last shred of her sanity. Aside from the strange flow of the conversation, the mere idea that she could do anything so outlandish was hard for her to even consider. Yes, Victoria could admit that she had reservations about changing the lives of all the Lenoxians without any real thought, as her cousin had done. She also knew that Alex had been tying to pin various things on her, but surely the crazed woman before her didn't believe that Victoria would do anything to hurt her town and people? Through her entire life, Victoria had worked hard to do what was best for the people of Meridan district and Lenox. As far as the experienced leader could tell, the only person that was a real threat to the entire Lenox dimension was Alex.

"How dare you," With her pride damaged, Victoria's last shred of patience broke and she shouted back with as much force as Rogue, "I have done nothing but work my butt off to protect the people in my district! Then you come tumbling back into Lenox and start destroying everything our family worked so hard to create and defend!"

"What my dad wanted to _create_ was an open line of communication with the Morphs!"

"Damn it, all you ever think about is them! After being raised by one, I guess you lost any sense of loyalty to the Lenoxians." The look of surprise on Rogue's face prompted Victoria to continue, "Yes, I heard about one of the Morphs taking you to Earth and even that you claim the one on your team is your brother."

"He is my family." Rogue growled out feeling a fire start building in her toes and the tips of her fingers.

"Listen to yourself! It is like you don't even realize who you are."

"I know exactly who I am!" The fire started to become warmer as it began to spread up her ankles and through both of her palms.

"If that were true at all, you would know that the Morphs are our enemy." Victoria's tone mirrored Remy's blunt, yet emotionally destructive one from earlier as she began to finally tell her cousin what she felt, "They stormed your home and tortured your entire family until they died in some machine. Do you know how many lives were lost that night? How many innocent people burned alive in the fire?! How can you just forget them?! How could you forget your own father's death by their hands?!"

"I will never forget." She could feel the control of her actions beginning to rapidly slip away, but she refused to give in now, "But if I can start to forgive them and trust the innocent Morphs after everything my family went through, then you sure as hell should be able to welcome them into Lenox!"

"If you actually cared about our family and the people of this land," Victoria took a sharp breath as her own memories of that night played through her mind like the nightmare she constantly fought at night.

She could still see the crowds racing in panic into walls of flames. Her father had tried so bravely to usher the guests through the safe paths. She hadn't been able to keep up due to her fear and short legs. The moment she had collapsed amongst the smoke and quickly approaching heat, her dad had reappeared right at her side and saved her life without a thought to his own safety. His pant leg had caught on fire from his many rescue efforts, and she still had nightmares of seeing her father's leg blackened and burned to the point where saving it was not even a feasible option.

So many lives had been destroyed that night, and yet the future ruler of the land she loved with all of her heart was willing to drag them down into destruction. She was not going to let someone like Alex destroy the lives of innocent people by allowing another Morph uprising to start.

"If you really cared about any of the people," She repeated with an icy tone, "you would have stayed back on Earth!"

Rogue's fist shot out before she could stop it and struck Victoria's torso with a great deal of force. The girl flew back like a rocket and crashed into the bookshelf. Various novels fell to the floor practically burying the girl, but she never took her eyes off of Rogue. As Rogue's chest heaved up and down in an attempt to stop herself from beating Victoria into one giant bruise, she waited for the other woman to scream or attack in retaliation. Instead, Victoria held a hand gingerly over stomach and watched Rogue with a level of shock that frightened even the overcharged X-man.

"You…" Victoria stumbled on the words as she clutched her wounded body and tried to make a solid sentence. As Rogue stared her down with a firm gaze, the girl finally blurted out, "Your eyes…are yellow."

The statement sent a physical shock through Rogue's body. She took a step back and dared to look at her reflection in a shiny shield hanging on a nearby wall. Just as Victoria had claimed, her green eyes had been replaced by bright yellow orbs, which were mysteriously similar to the telltale yellow eyes of a Morph. She clutched her own stomach with both hands and almost doubled over as a sudden feeling of nausea overcame her as she tried desperately to picture her own green eyes.

The door to the library opened suddenly, but Rogue couldn't force herself to see who had discovered them. She kept her eyes closed tightly and tried to settle her stomach with a few deep breaths. When she finally let her ears tune into the situation around her, she could hear Jude's angry voice demanding to know what was happening. What could she tell him? That she had lost control and suddenly started turning into a Morph? If he didn't think she was crazy already, then he would have locked her in an institution at the sound of that story.

Without a word to either of them, she shoved past Jude and raced down the halls unsure where she could turn. Maybe it was their past history of being there for each other when the whole world was caving in, or maybe it was the fact she truly needed his warm embrace, but as she knocked on the door, she couldn't have been more thankful to see those red eyes greet her own pair.

After their fight, and Rogue's absence at the first stage of Kitty's event, Remy had resigned himself to the fact that she probably needed time to cool off and figure a few things out on her own. He had felt a _little_ bad about telling her so bluntly that he believed she was still pining away for Jude, but it had been the truth. He couldn't ignore the way she stared at that boy like he was the only person in the room. Despite the little he allowed himself to show it outwardly, watching the girl he cared so deeply for spend all her energy on another man hurt him deeply. In fact, it was ticking him off so much that he was starting to remember the many reasons he had once thought a real relationship with anyone was such a horrendous idea.

So when he opened his door to find a shaken, teary-eyed Rogue, he had been more than a little surprised to feel his frustration soften. He ushered her in without a word and wrapped his warm arms around her as soon as the door closed. She buried her face in his shirt and he gently stroked her back as hard sobs started to wrack her body. He didn't know what had pushed her into such hysterics, but his own instincts began to rise quickly. Whoever was behind this was going to get a visit from him, and it wouldn't be pretty.

When Rogue finally stopped crying, he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. She remained quiet as he led them over to the bed and gently coaxed her into sitting down with him. With one arm around her shoulders and the other gently clutching her limp arm, he could feel her pulse racing quicker than the dazed look on her face would have allowed. It was almost as if she had been too shocked by whatever or whoever to do more than manage a few unsteady breaths.

"Chere?" He spoke softly and pet her hair, "Talk to me."

"I am an idiot." She finally mumbled so roughly that he had to strain to understand the words, "I should have never come here."

The words weren't making too much sense to the Cajun, but he let the girl vent in hopes she would start making some intelligible statements as she went along. When Rogue refused to say anything else to him, Remy kissed the side of her head gently and tried to comfort her as best he could from the mysterious ailment.

"First off," he told her in a sweet voice, "you definitely aren't an idiot. Don't know who got you this worked up Chere, but Remy be happy to go and teach 'em some manners."

"Is that so?" She mumbled through a sore throat while keeping her face buried in his shoulder, but seemed to be showing the tiniest bit of humor at his statement.

"'Course, Remy charge a few cards and they be running for the hills in no time." He chuckled softly at his own joke, then noticed her back stiffen strangely before suddenly loosening into a state that appeared more fluid then seemed natural for his girlfriend. "You okay, Chere?"

"Actually," She turned to look at him, her green eyes sparkling strangely in the dim lighting of the room, "I am feeling better than I have in a long time."

She shifted her body so that she could face him and offered a thoughtful smile, "And you, have deserved this for so long."

When her lips suddenly found his, Remy couldn't help but smile. He still wasn't completely sure what was going on in Rogue's mind, but he wasn't going to pass up a chance to kiss her. They had waited so long for her to have any kind of control, so it almost seemed wasteful to not accept every touch they offered each other. The warmth and comfort of the kiss was great, but as Rogue started pushing the kiss deeper instead of pulling away from the action he began to grow concerned.

He tried to voice a question when she momentarily moved back to take a gasp of air, since he knew full well how hard it was for her to control her powers for a simple peck on the lips, but Rogue recaptured his lips and started pushing him back on the bed. Despite a small red flag in the back of his head, Remy agreed to the motions and found himself staring up at his girlfriend's eyes as she smiled down at him.

Somehow through the distraction of Rogue's warm kisses and the closeness of their bodies, he found the questions racing through his brain were still unavoidable. She ignored his quizzical look and held his wrists with both hands as she straddled his waist. He raised an eyebrow as it dawned on him that she didn't seem to be having any trouble touching his bare wrists or any interest in paying attention to his now verbal attempts to stop her motions and get some answers.

"Chere," He hid his nervousness through a bleak attempt at humor, "Not that Remy isn't enjoying the show, but how are you suddenly able to do this?"

A new smile crept over Rogue's face and her eyes began to shift into something completely different than the bright emerald green he loved. The bold yellow coloring was bright enough to standout even in their darkened room. He stared unblinking at the eyes and noted there was no longer any sign of an iris or pupil. The only thing that could be seen as her smile shifted into a scarier expression was a hauntingly empty pool of yellow. He jerked against her tight hold of his arms, but she kept him still with a few hard squeezes to his wrists. He didn't know what was going on, but as Rogue leaned down and chuckled at him he knew that something horrifying was just beginning.

"I think," She told him in a voice that no longer sounded like her own sassy tone, "I will take your idea and charge a few things up."

The sudden kiss lacked anything but a maniacal passion. Remy squirmed and groaned as he felt the sudden draining affects from Rogue's powers come into play. She ignored his obvious attempts to escape and left her once warm lips on his until the world around Remy turned dark.


	9. We Will Get Through This, Chere

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thank you for reading the previous chapter everyone! I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at this new chapter. Thanks again and here is the new chapter:**

* * *

Remy awoke to a sudden burst of color and sound all around him. His chest heaved up and down desperate for a full breath after surviving on small bits of oxygen for far too long. The sides of his vision line were blurry and his whole body ached as if he had been run over by a truck. Despite the lack of his normally skilled body, his mind was already racing with just one thought; Rogue.

With legs made of jelly, he stumbled and tripped his way to the door. He practically fell down as the door swung open quicker than he expected, almost scaring a middle-aged maid out of her skin. She yelled in surprise and stared at him in shock for a good minute before daring to approach the kneeling man. She timidly asked if he was all right, but Remy ignored the question and forced his legs to stand straight once again.

"Rogu-" He paused, between the fuzzy feeling in his brain and the desire to not waste time using a name the maid might not recognize, "Alex. Where's Alex?"

The maid stepped back from him, feeling that he looked a little too dangerous and/or drunk to stay close to, "Her majesty, left hours ago. She took off in the direction of the games."

How long had he been out? The kiss Rogue, or whoever that had been, had given him had been one of the most painful experiences in his life. Aside from the emotional issues it offered, there was definitely something pretty horrible about having your energy sucked out of your body. He had been zapped before, but those had been small, quick touches that left no real damage. This kiss had been strong enough to make him fear his lungs might never recover.

The woman in front of him was already babbling on about calling for help, but he pushed past her and stormed out of the mansion. He couldn't wrap his mind, fuzz or not, around what was happening, but he knew that there was going to be trouble. Anytime Rogue became that distant and different, something big always happened. He only prayed that he would make it to the field before anything could transpire.

The second part of the psychic challenges was already well under way in the main arena. Jean, Kitty, Logan, and Scott had been in the middle of their newest plan to capture the other team's weight when a dazed Remy had appeared at the sidelines. He tried to shout something at them, but the guards on duty kept pulling him away from the edge of the field. The girls stared at Logan, expecting him to have heard the yells, but even the gruff man couldn't understand what had the Cajun so worked up.

Remy reappeared at the sidelines only a few moments later, having swiftly dealt with the guards, and tried to shout even louder at the X-men. This time, Logan picked up a few words and started to wonder if there was something bigger than he realized going on. He put his hand on Scott's shoulder and waited until the young man gave him his full attention, "Something's wrong here. Gumbo wouldn't be screaming like that for no reason."

"What are we supposed to do?" Scott asked and ducked as a piece of debris from the other team flew at their heads, "I don't think we can call a time out here, Logan."

Logan snorted and figured as much as he hated quitting a challenge, there might be a far more important issue to look at, "Forfeit, I gue-"

Above their heads, a shadow suddenly appeared. The boys knew that none of the team members on the other side had flight abilities, so an instant fear began to creep into their minds. In a flash, Scott looked up and stared unblinkingly at a large glowing rock held tightly in the hands of their friend and teammate, Rogue.

"What the-" Logan grumbled and yanked Scott away as Rogue suddenly threw the charged stone at their hiding position.

The boys tumbled down the hill and landed in a mass of limbs on the floor. After pulling himself up, Logan watched the girl fly around the field like a maniac. Everything she touched began to glow with Remy's trademark shade, before blowing up and sending sharp pieces of trees and rocks throughout the arena. Although he couldn't make out what she was grumbling as she started to destroy the field, Logan quickly spotted the yellow color coating her normally green eyes.

"Rogue!" Kitty, having long since abandoned the game, grabbed hold of her competitor's guard and phased them through a large rock hurled directly at them, "What in the world are you doing?!"

As the princess flew back over to Kitty's area, the competitor grabbed Kitty and teleported them back to his home base. Within seconds, a large tree exploded only steps away from Kitty's previous location. She stared in surprise at the damage and tried to think of any possible reason her best friend could be causing such chaos.

"Jean?" Logan looked to his side as Jean appeared and hoped she would have some good news for them.

"I don't know what is going on." She admitted softly and kept her eyes closed to focus on Rogue's mind, "That is Rogue's body, but I can't reach her…"

With the field showing more signs of destruction than jungle scenery, Rogue turned her attention to a control box hidden near the edge of the arena. A sinister grin covered her lips, forcing Kitty and Scott to take a step back in fear, as she charged the item with far more power than even a careless Remy would dare.

The box exploded and sparked a fire that quickly spread across the foliage in the field and the banners along the sides. The audience screamed in terror and started to race out of the stands anyway they could. As the sky filled with flying spectators and dark smoke, Remy leaped over the side wall and raced towards the X-men. Inside their minds, they all heard the concerned voice of the Professor asking them to focus on getting the crowd to safety while Storm went after Rogue.

Remy left the crowd up to the others and refused to follow the Professor's orders to leave Rogue to someone else. Despite the strange experiences they had been going through lately, he was not going to step back when she needed help so desperately. This was not his Rogue, and he would have to be dragged kicking and screaming before he would leave her side. He was staying right beside her until she was back to her real self.

"What is going on with those yellow eyes?" Jude's voice unexpectedly joined Remy as he ducked to avoid a piece of flying rock.

The blonde man looked as lost, if not more so, than Remy as he tried to follow the Cajun's quick movements across the field. They weren't close, and as far as Remy was concerned, Jude was never going to be one of his best friends. Even the idea of being basic friends with the preppy boy was a bit of a stretch. Either way, as he tried to plan a way to get Rogue to calm down, he was glad to have another person at his side. If he couldn't reach through her muddled mind, then maybe Jude could try.

Storm flew over the boys, still trying to navigate the field and get a high enough position to talk to Rogue. She felt the familiar pangs of sadness, as she watched the girl lose all control once again. The last thing she or any of the X-men wanted, was to hurt Rogue. She was still their dear friend, but as the crowds below began to scream from wounds and fear she knew there was no other choice. Quickly, Storm whipped up a rainstorm that seemed to help curb the rapidly spreading fire. Despite having to use her abilities to help others, she kept her eyes on Rogue as the girl continued her sporadic attacks on the people.

"Stop this, Rogue!" Storm yelled out to her confused friend and sent a threatening lightning bolt near the girl, "Give up now so we can help you. This is not you, Rogue."

"Let them burn!" Rogue suddenly stopped in mid-air and started screaming out threats that sounded far too cruel to be from her own mind, "There will never be peace between the Lenox and the Morphs!"

The boys stopped their race to the top of a large rock structure on the field and stared in shock at Rogue's face. The softness of her warm lips and sparkly eyes had been replaced by a twisted scowl and even brighter yellow light. She waved her arms into the air and kept trying to start fights by shouting out various remarks that only some of the people heard. Even with her overly loud shouts, the screams of the people below her, easily started to overshadow her words.

"We will overtake the Lenox monsters! The Morph revolution will come back!"

The ground began to shake as Rogue's wild hand movements stopped and her hands pointed down to the ground. Remy grunted in surprise as his body lost its hold on the rock they had perched on and he started to fall off the edge. Jude reached out a quick hand and tried to pull the boy up to his side of the non-crumbled part of the rock. Rogue's tremors increased to a new level and even Jude was taken aback by the shakes. As he let go of Remy's hand and started to tumble down the rock, he made a split-second decision.

The boy's hand shot out and forced one of the jagged pieces of broken rock to move swiftly upwards. With one lightning quick flick of his wrist, he sent the rock sailing towards Rogue. Due to her preoccupation with Storm's attacks and yelling various threats to the crowd , Rogue never saw the thing coming. The rock struck her squarely on her right temple with enough pent up force that it knocked her out cold.

"Rogue!" Remy yelled in a mix of fear and hidden relief that she was no longer on the rampage.

Since Storm slowed the woman's descent with a strong breeze, Remy was able to catch Rogue before she hit the ground. He cradled her in his arms and couldn't tear his eyes away from her exhausted face. A deep gash decorated her right temple and blood was already streaming down her pale face. The normally soft tan color that covered her cheeks had been reduced to a grayish, white color that gave her a more sickly appearance than he had seen before.

"Chere…" He hugged her close to his chest and kissed the top of her head, "Don't worry," He had no way of knowing if she could hear him, but he remained grave as he cradled her to his chest, "I promise we will fix this. I will stay right beside you, and we will fix this."

Remy carried her the entire way to the hospital and only let go briefly when the doctor firmly reminded him that they couldn't help her if she stayed in his arms. Even when they promised him that she would be safe with them, the crimson-eyed man had been reluctant to let go of her. Now, as he stood beside Jude in front of Rogue's hospital room, his eyes had yet to leave the window offering him a clear view of the unconscious woman.

The doctors had been concerned with her well being, as they were with all of their patients, but they had also been fearful of what would happen when the princess woke up. News of the destruction she had caused at the games was already being discussed with lightning fast speed through the entire dimension. Thankfully, the influx of patients from the stands had mainly come in with minor burns and simple wounds generally acquired from running in panic from the princess rather than directly by her hands.

Since they couldn't be certain Rogue would wake up with a clear mind, the idea of restraining her with straps had been raised immediately. Due to Professor Xavier and Lydia's attempts to remind the doctors that tying her down, could possibly push her back into another episode when she awoke, they had created a compromise. The doctors would be allowed to restrain Rogue while they worked on her wounds, but once they were done she would be placed in a secure room built to handle people with her level of strength.

As the two men stood side by side and watched Rogue sleep in her hospital bed, the silence between them grew into something so heavy it was hard to breathe. Jude knew that Rogue had been using Remy's power on the field, but he didn't know what had happened to give her such a strong dose. Without a boost from someone, Rogue was not skilled enough to bust out a power that strong.

If she had drained Remy as deeply as Jude figured she had, then something was even more wrong with the situation. Rogue was proud of her ability to control herself long enough to touch someone without hurting them. She wouldn't have risked all that without a cause. Jude just wasn't sure if some mysterious force in her head had fueled that cause alone, or if it had been helped along by something Remy could have done.

"Is there any change?" the gentle voice of Lydia greeted them softly, and forced both boys to stifle their internal fears about each other.

As Jude turned to face Lydia, he felt his chest tighten at the sight of her red eyes, still damp from shimmering tears. She had been hurt badly in her lifetime, but watching her daughter go through such a trauma had been one of the worst experiences the queen had witnessed. She had wanted to convince herself that all of the dangers her little Alex could ever face had been vanquished, but she was no longer able to live with such luxuries.

"Lydia," Jude spoke softly and offered her a comforting hug, while Remy just stared unblinkingly at Rogue's body, "She will be okay. Alex is a strong woman. She will get through this."

The woman nodded solemnly and spared only a quick glance at Remy's quiet frame before responding, "I pray that you are right, Jude. I can't lose my little girl…"

The words of Rogue's mother forced Remy's brow to dip down further. His promise was as strong as it could be already, but hearing the heartbreaking tone in Lydia's voice made his resolve even firmer. Rogue _would_ get through this. They had been through so much in their short lives and he would not rest until he helped her recover from this attack.


	10. The Break

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Do Not Own The Chapter Title Song 'The Break' From The Musical 'Next To Normal' Either.**

 **The chapter title song is 'The Break' from the musical 'Next To Normal'. That show has some pretty interesting music and will probably show up in other chapters of this story.**

 **Thanks for reading the past chapter everyone! I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at and read this new chapter. Thanks to Jehilew, Wee Auntie, and tx peppa for their nice reviews. And here is the new chapter:**

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The air in the conference room was thick enough to cut with a knife. Outside of the hospital, a large mass of reporters and photographers were trying to gain any bit of information they could about what had happened to their princess. Little did they know, that far above their heads a group of concerned mutants was trying hard to figure out the very same problem.

Lydia had been able to avoid making any public statements and sent only a written notice to the press and a separate, more personal, one to the families of the people who had been injured in the attack. It had taken her a few minutes to try and think past anything but the pain and heartache of watching her child suffer, but after a few deep breaths, she had somehow pulled her tears back and sat quietly at the head of the table. The normal sunniness in her clear blue eyes had been replaced by a dim shadow that was too uncomfortable for most of the X-men to stare at.

To Lydia's side sat Jude and Victoria, who had heard of the attacks while having her chest bandaged in the hospital to help steady her broken ribs. She hadn't expected to be called into the room after hearing most of the story through Axel and Eleanor, but she had been extremely willing to help in any way she could. Despite their rocky relationship, she didn't want her cousin to crumble under the control of some strange force. And she was definitely worried what would happen to her aunt if things turned out badly. Lydia had always been dear to her heart when Victoria was a child, and now that she had returned to the throne the women had been able to strike up their friendship once again.

It was the professor who dared to speak first, "I know that we are all deeply upset by what has happened to Alex," He reminded himself to use her birth name to try and show respect to her mother, "I have been trying to reach her mind, but so far I cannot find any sign that she is able to understand me or even realize I am there."

"But she is in there," Kitty spoke up from her spot between Kurt and Logan, "I mean, you know that our Rogue is still in there?"

"I couldn't get a read on her in the field." Jean added before the man could compose an answer, "It was as if something had covered any trace of her."

The professor took the question and new information slowly. He didn't want to jump to any conclusions or make any rash statements when the room was already so tense. A quick look around the table assured him that the only option he had was to try to dissect the problem and search for any possible signs of good news. There was always a bright side if one looked hard enough.

"I think it would be best if we try to figure out what led up to Alex's incident."

"Well, it seems that she has been behind all of the weird attacks on the games." Scott tried to bring order to his mind and the situation by following the professor's idea to look at the basic chain of events, "But if she did all of those things, why was she so sure that Victoria was the real attacker? She really didn't seem to know what was going on."

"She did disappear around the times the attacks occurred. I mean she was already awake at the house, and she vanished right after the flight contest. But what was she doing before this attack? The last time I saw her…" As Kitty's voice dropped back into silence, the room shifted uncomfortably to look at Remy.

They all knew it was his power Rogue had been using to create her rampage, but no one had yet been bold enough to ask him how she had gotten so much of his power. All their observations had told them, was Rogue had skipped lunch and walked away with Remy behind her.

For his part, Remy remained silent and kept his eyes trained on the cards shuffling between his hands. He could feel their stares and had no desire to address the questions they wanted to ask but seemed fearful to. It was hard enough to handle his own racing emotions about Rogue and their moment together, that he was not in any hurry to share the information with other people. The only thing he could comprehend at the moment was how much time he was wasting in this room when Rogue could be waking up at any second.

"What happened?"

Remy looked up as someone finally asked him the question that he had been expecting and dreading. Jude's eyes were firm and seemed to be holding a greater amount of anger than Remy thought was possible. No matter what he asked, the Cajun was not going to give him the complete story. Instead, Remy shrugged his shoulders coolly causing the blonde to fume.

"Can't you understand how important this is? You were the last person to see her before she attacked the games." Jude stood from his chair and glared at Remy, "Can't you just push your damn pride away and think of someone besides yourself?"

Remy was up and out of his chair before anyone could make a move. He held a card out towards Jude's neck and felt the warmth flood through his senses. The other man refused to move an inch as he stared at Remy's eyes, seeming to ignore the weapon thrust at him. Neither was going to give in and look weak in front of the other, but Lydia put a stop to the madness with one quick measure.

"Stop this." She demanded in a stronger voice than anyone in the room expected and waited for both boys to sit back down, "What happened does not matter. Alex absorbed Remy's powers without his consent due to some mysterious force controlling her actions," She looked to Remy, who gave her the tiniest nod of agreement, "and attacked the arena. The _only_ thing that matters now is figuring out how to clear this force from her mind."

"Is it possible, that," Jude's voice broke the silence that had followed Lydia's statement, "the personality using Alex is," He spared a glance at Lydia before choosing to use the name of someone none of them wanted to think about, "Sunil?"

A new level of stress fell over the group as they mulled Jude's idea and tried to think of any way to argue against it. They had all seen Sunil attack and almost kill their friend before she let out a giant power burst to defeat him. Though none of them had really sat Rogue down and questioned her outright about what had happened to Sunil during her blast, it had certainly been thought about. It was hard, if not impossible, to ignore the idea that she seemed to have been standing by herself when the dust settled.

"She once told me," Jude added, "There was a woman on Earth she had absorbed so… deeply, that she passed away. What happened to her body?"

The professor sat back in his chair and took a slow breath as he tried to decide how much he should tell the group. The story of Rogue and Carol Danvers had been kept in strict confidence between the adults in the mansion and Rogue, as best they could. Few, if any of the mutants in the room, knew about what had happened between the two women. Most of the known information about the incident had been discussed between Rogue and the professor during their long talks. As he looked around the table and noticed the expressions on his X-men's faces, he realized that he may have to share more than the small bits of information they had received when Rogue suddenly acquired the ability to fly and use super strength.

"Mrs. Danvers is alive in Alex's mind, but her body is forever trapped in a comatose state." He explained in the only way he could think of that would try to respect both women, "The doctors have kept her alive through various machines, but her psyche is completely trapped in Alex's mind."

"Could she actually absorb Sunil's body?" Kurt suddenly asked in a small voice, as his stance on Sunil's disappearance began to shift from escape to possible absorption.

"I don't know." Professor Xavier admitted to his student, "I am not aware of the extent of her mimic powers."

"As far as I know, there has never been a situation like this in our family history." Lydia, the only real source of knowledge on the mimic's abilities, spoke up slowly, "I have never known of a mimic who absorbed someone completely before Alex told me about her incident with Mrs. Danvers. But if she somehow managed to completely absorb Sunil, she could be in greater danger than any of us could understand-"

"Your highness," The doctor opened the door to the room and addressed her alone, "your daughter just woke up."

It was hospital policy to keep patients with illnesses as mysterious as Rogue's in a wheelchair during transport. Had she felt up to her normal stubborn self, the woman would have argued against the idea until she was blue in the face. Instead, the emotionally and physically drained woman quietly settled for being wheeled to the conference room. Her brain felt funny as if she knew time had passed her by, but she had no idea where she had been or what had been going on. All she knew was the doctors were willing to let her see the people she was concerned about; despite the nervous way they looked at her.

The entire room remained silent as she entered with the nurse, and kept its unnerving silence as the nurse positioned her at one end of the table then left the room. The gauze covering the stinging wound on her forehead seemed to be the only thing any of the Lenoxians or X-men could let themselves stare at. She knew it was strange to see her with a wound, due to her thick skin, but it was creepy to be watched like that. It wasn't like her friends and family were the only ones staring at her like she was a sideshow, though. Every pair of eyes, doctor or patient, she had passed in the halls, had given her the same stare of uncertainty.

"Anyone want to say… anything?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"Alex, my dear, how are you feeling?" Lydia walked to her daughter and embraced her in a soft hug, unsure if the girl was sore from her earlier actions.

"Okay…" Rogue answered reluctantly.

She didn't feel _okay_ in any real sense of the word. Her head hurt, her memories were blurry, and the memories she could understand were not exactly images she was proud of. In fact, she was having trouble looking towards Remy at all. But what else could she say when faced with Lydia's tear filled eyes?

"I am glad to see that you are feeling better." Professor Xavier spoke up next and reached out to gently touch her covered wrist. "Do you remember anything, Alex?"

"I have a few flashes of hitting Victori-" The young woman paused, and braved one quick look at her cousin sitting a few seats away, before changing her subject, "Then I was with... Remy and everything went black."

The Cajun watched the girl with a mix of worry and relief on his features. He couldn't deny that he was thankful to see those bright green eyes staring at him once more, but it didn't take away from the fear that any minute her gaze would change into something different. She had been so upset when she knocked on his door, that he had already begun to add emotional distress to the list of possible causes for the psyche taking her mind. But she had changed right next to him when he had tried to comfort her, so maybe this went further than just being pushed to her emotional limits? The moment he had mentioned charging the cards to attack whoever had made her angry, she had switched into someone he didn't know.

"What," Rogue looked around at the faces either staring at her with nervous eyes or avoiding her gaze, "happened? I know something must have forced this."

No one jumped on the question as the woman pointed to the wound on her forehead. The way they bit their lips, cleared throats, or continued to stare at anything but her face annoyed her. Whatever had occurred during her blackout had been big. It had been big enough to leave her with a wound and a very scared looking group of doctors. She needed an explanation, whether they were going to give her one or not.

Wordlessly, Rogue gripped the wheels of her chair and pushed herself over to the window. She peeked through the blinds and first noticed the light amount of smoke drifting from the distance. When she couldn't get a good view of the source of the smoke, she shifted her gaze down to the large crowd outside of the hospital's front entrance. One of the people in the crowd spotted the movement of the window blinds and flew up, in hopes of catching sight of the princess.

"Alexandria, come away from the windows." Lydia suddenly demanded as Logan got up from his chair if they needed to pull her away.

"I just want to see what happened over there." She ignored the request and pulled the blinds up a foot.

The instant flash blinded her and sent the girl into a defensive pose. The reporter outside immediately let out a loud shout to the girl through the glass, "Princess, why did you attack the games? Have you spoken to the families of the people you injured? Do you really believe that the Lenoxians and Morphs should go to war?"

"Get lost or lose a hand!" Logan growled protectively and flexed his claws at the man, who obediently floated back down to the others.

Logan spared only a quick glance at the crowd; he knew other flying reporters would be at their window in no time. He shut the blinds and made sure they were as closed as possible, before turning his attention back to Rogue. She was still trying to grasp the multiple questions thrown at her and seemed to be having trouble understanding what in the world was going on.

"Tell me," She demanded in as firm a voice as she could muster, "Logan, you have to tell me what happened! Please, I have to know what…I did…"

The man took a deep breath and forced himself to look into Rogue's hurt eyes. She knew that he wasn't going to ignore her plea for information, nor was he going to tell her anything but the truth. Unlike the other people in the room, who would try to sugar coat the information, he was determined to let her know everything that had happened. The other way might have been easier, but he felt the girl before him deserved the right way no matter how painful it was to all of them.

When the whole story of Rogue's attack on the game had been completed, the girl had yet to say a word. She hadn't interrupted Logan's story once, nor expressed any emotion besides an eerie calmness that disturbed some of the others. Had they been able to see inside of Rogue's mind, they would have known that the genuinely eerie thing about the whole situation was her complete lack of memories. She didn't know when she had lost control of her mind or how it was possible that someone had taken her body for a test drive and left her with no memories, but she couldn't ignore the things Logan told her.

Thankfully, the others had been willing to slowly fill in the rest of the details after Logan broke the hardest news. They had taken random turns mentioning the fact she was most likely the person behind the attacks, that her eyes had turned a solid yellow, and that she had spent a good amount of her afternoon shouting out maniacal statements about Morphs overthrowing the Lenox. The one thing they didn't have to add to the story was the person they feared had been behind her sudden destructive behavior.

"You think it's Sunil, don't you?" When no one answered her statement, she added, "You think Sunil is taking control of my mind."

"It is a strong possibility," Professor Xavier was the first to admit the fear that had been floating around the room before Rogue woken up. "But we are all here to try and stop him from gaining any more control of your mind."

"We'll stop him from ever using you again, Chere." Remy spoke up after remaining silent through most of the conversations, "I promise you we will stop him."

Rogue bit her lip and tried to stop imagining herself flying around and attacking the people she cared about. Deep down, she had always been afraid of the idea that Sunil was not really gone. His psyche was still inside her, and even she knew that he wasn't the type to take being stuck in the head of a random Lenox girl without a fight. Up until now, though, she had tried to tell herself that if she ever felt his presence, she would do anything to stop him. But she had missed all of the signs of danger.

Really, she had not only missed the signs, but she still didn't completely understand what the signs were. Were the random headaches a sign? Could she have missed a big change in the feeling of fire spreading through her? Last time, she had felt that fire was when she had attacked Sunil. She never thought that the feeling surging through her as she argued with Victoria could have been because of Sunil and not her own powers.

People had already been hurt by her failure to keep her mind in check. She could have easily critically wounded, or even killed, one of her friends or a bystander without blinking an eye. If she couldn't understand her own triggers and was unable to stop the attacks once Sunil took control of her mind, she was nothing more than a hazard to everyone around her. All of the people she had tried so hard to protect were now in danger once again because of her. She couldn't let anyone else suffer because of her. No, she wasn't going to let that happen, no matter what it took.

"If we can't stop him," She took on such a grave tone that the entire room appeared to hold their breath for a moment. Each person around the table seemed to sense exactly where she was heading, "Then I am going to _finish_ this, once and for all. "


	11. You Are Not My Family

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thank you guys and gals for reading the previous chapter. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy days to read this chapter. Thank you again and here it is:**

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As Kurt packed a bag for the newest X-men mission, he tried to keep his mind from traveling back to the hospital conference room. He'd known his sister was emotionally unstable before the attack on the game, but he never thought she would announce that she was willing to _get rid_ of herself if it came down to it. The memory still made him shudder as he zipped up his small bag of supplies and headed downstairs to meet the rest of his team.

The first person he spotted in the sitting room was Remy. The boy had a lightweight backpack slung over his broad shoulder and seemed to be zoning out as he stared at one of the cards from his deck. After watching the look of rage overcome his normally calm face, Kurt had found a strange respect for Remy. He had never been too thrilled with the idea of his sister dating a thief, but the scene in the conference room proved to him that Remy really did care for her deeper than any of them could imagine.

Remy had been the first one to respond to Rogue's statement. Unlike Kurt, who had been unable to form a sentence through the surprise of such an announcement, Remy had jumped up immediately and demanded that she stop thinking about anything even resembling that idea. Rogue fought him tooth and nail, stating that if it came to it, this was her choice and she refused to give Sunil the chance to use her as a weapon ever again. Unscathed by the ferocity of her words, Remy never detoured from his attempts to beat some sense into the girl's head. Kurt could only pray that Rogue took some of the things Remy told her to heart. If she didn't have faith that they could find a solution as a team, then half of the battle was already lost.

It had been Jude who momentarily settled the fight, by offering the first possible solution to their problems; Morph collars. Sunil had been able to create a device that kept Rogue from flying, so the group agreed it was possible they might be able to find a way to use the collar to stop any attempts by her psyches to use her. It was a bit far-fetched, in Kurt's head, since they had no idea how the Morph technology worked, but he was willing to cling to any chance to stop Sunil from using his sister.

"Vhere is everyone else?" Kurt ventured as he took a seat on one of the couches.

Remy kept his eyes trained on the card and only said something that sounded like they were still packing. The mission team, consisting of Kurt, Remy, Jude, Logan, and Rogue, had been warned about the lack of any basic supplies in the Morphs' old land. After the chaos of the battle and the subsequent removal of the Morphs from the barren land, most of their underground city had been left to rot. A good deal of the high ranking Morphs' hideouts and storage sheds had been completely destroyed by fires or other various measures in an attempt to keep their plans out of the hands of Lenox invaders. The whole place was now a maze of dangerous rubble and charred materials, making their trip into the deeper parts of the land so tricky.

If it been up to Kurt, Rogue would not have been allowed on the trip. The doctors had let her out of the hospital only a day ago and she had been free from any strange behaviors or yellow eyes for at least forty-eight hours. Despite her good progress, Kurt wondered how she would react going back into Sunil's territory. Even Logan had argued that it wouldn't be a good idea to put Rogue in a place that could aggravate Sunil, but she wouldn't hear of staying behind.

"I am the only person in the group who knows anything about the inside of that place." Rogue told them when they planned the search party, "Staying here is not going to fix anything. If I go with you, I can at least try the collars when we find them. It would be safer to test them in a deserted area than Meridan anyway."

Remy looked up from his card as Kurt fell silent. He knew they were both worried about Rogue's announcement, but Remy couldn't bring himself to talk to Kurt about it. Actually, he couldn't talk to anyone about it. The idea that Rogue would rather die than live with Sunil in her head had cut him like a razorblade. The cold and unfeeling way she had been able to make such a statement infuriated him. He was not going to let her curl up and give Sunil the satisfaction of winning! No, he had promised her with his whole heart that they would fix this and he would make sure that she fought for her own survival just as hard.

"Alright," Logan entered the room, with Jude and Rogue at his heels, "Let's get this thing going."

As they rode in silence to the edge of the Morphs' land, Rogue tried to keep her mind focused on the idea of the collars. She had kept herself awake as long as she could since their hospital conference and was not going to let her mind drift for a moment. If she couldn't figure out the signs of Sunil jumping into the driver's seat, then she would just keep herself going all the time. If she didn't sleep, then she couldn't release her mental hold. If she continued to think one idea over and over again, she wouldn't give her head any free room to slack off.

They left their vehicle back a mile or two from the entrance, on the off chance a radical Morph might be hanging around. Since the big attack on the games, the anger between the two sides had sent some Morphs back into the old land to avoid mingling with the even angrier Lenoxians. Stories of the princess' supposed plan to get rid of everyone and join the Morphs' side were flooding Meridan, causing the other Lenoxians to grow more frightened by the hour.

Some remained by the side of the Lenox family, taking Victoria and Lydia's statements that the princess still believed in equal treatment for all and was only suffering from a small malady, as the real story. Others had already started to fill their shelves with food and water in case the Morph attack the princess screamed about started.

It was still hard for Rogue to believe her cousin had been willing to stand up in front of a crowd, with her ribs still bandaged from Rogue's attack, and tell them that the princess was not promoting a war between the two sides. How Lydia and her cousin handled the entire explanation of her freak out? She didn't know. There was too much going on in her life to keep track of the statements, so she continued her focus exercises and left the public to her family.

"When we get down there," Logan told her as they approached the same stone Rogue had once used to sneak into Sunil's underground city, "Lead the way to his building but stay low. There is no telling what will be waiting."

She silently agreed and led them down into the depths of the Morph's city.

The once semi-impressive building that Sunil had considered his fortress had been badly damaged. The inside walls were stained with black dust and most of the rooms were filled with nothing but piles of burnt furniture. As the group quietly explored the various rooms, they found little sign that the Morph leaders left any of their projects to be found by future generations. By the time they located two rooms that somewhat resembled testing facilities; their hopes began to rise slightly.

After agreeing to split into two groups, Logan, Kurt, and Jude took the room to the left giving Rogue and Remy the other one. Had it not been close enough to easily hear a scream for help or escape if they needed to, Logan would never have agreed to split them up. He didn't trust Rogue to be left alone when her mind was so mixed up, but breaking into different groups quickened the search for a cure.

Along the shelves covering the walls of the room, were various pieces of scrap paper and metal gadgets that looked more like cooking utensils then anything dangerous. Somewhere in the maze of a building, Rogue knew the Morphs had a machine capable of sucking out your powers, memories, and energy. She wondered if Lydia would have been willing to tell her where that machine was located, so they could explore it, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to ask the woman. Ever since Rogue's blunt decision had been shared with the group, Lydia had been somewhat overwhelmed and seemed to have trouble even talking to her daughter.

It wasn't like Rogue was completely oblivious to the pain she had caused her mother with those words, but it couldn't be helped. What was the point in fighting so hard to save the people she loved if she could turn around and murder them herself with no warning? If they couldn't get a grip on this thing, then she had to make tough choices. That might be the only way to stop Sunil once and for all.

"Find anything?" She spoke up suddenly to Remy. After yelling at each other quite loudly, they had yet to talk again. Neither of them could figure out what to tell the other, so it seemed that an awkward silence was becoming the annoying third wheel.

"Non," He kicked a pile of ashes with the toe of his boot and watched them scatter around the floor. "You?"

"Just some crazy kitchen utensils. Think the Morphs were planning a breakfast of doom?"

Her small, bland icebreaker fell flat when he snapped his head back to her and offered a small glare. She stepped back, surprised to see him show such anger, before he let out a long sigh, "Can you take this seriously?"

"I am taking this seriously,"

For the first time, she started to notice the bags under Remy's eyes. As she studied his expression for more clues to what was going on in his head, she realized how tired he looked. Instead of the normal shine in his eyes, he now seemed like he was just trying to keep himself moving. She hoped to catch sight of his normal grin to give herself a breath of relief, but he was not going to smile at her now.

"Then keep looking. We have to find one." His tone was rough as if he was growing more desperate, but still fighting to hide his feelings, "We _will_ find one."

She looked away from his side of the room, unable to watch him kneel down and dig through the rubble. Watching the confident Remy start to crack and show his inner anxieties had shaken her. It was her fault he was like this and she wanted desperately to hug him and tell him that she was sorry for everything and that they could run off into the sunset. But that was not possible.

 _She had hurt Remy_. She hadn't been able to protect him from her, and she would never forgive herself for that. The biggest fear in her mind was that the people she loved would be injured by her own hands. No matter how much she loved Remy, she wasn't going to let him get hurt by her again. She wasn't going to let any of them get hurt, no matter what she had to do to save them.

As she moved a box in the corner of her side of the room, she spotted the black collar instantly. With a tentative hand, she reached out and picked it up. The weight and coldness of the metal were as familiar as it had been in her memories. It was hard to wrap her mind around the idea that she had once been so terrified of these devices. Watching them shock her dad and having been attacked by them as well, she knew how much power they could bring. Still, the sight of a real collar made her heart swell in a strange relief.

"I found something." She said it so softly to Remy that she wasn't sure if he heard her.

Only seconds later, though, his shadow appeared over her and the earthy smell of him overcame her. She stood slowly and showed him the device, but kept a firm hold on it so he could not take it out of her hands. She trusted Remy, but with the current emotional charge between them, she doubted if he would be willing to stick to their plan.

Seeing the black collar both angered and appeased Remy. It was so strange to feel such intense emotions towards a simple necklace, but he couldn't put the memory of watching Rogue be electrocuted out of his mind. Even if the collar somehow worked and they could keep Sunil down, the idea that she would have to go through life chained like a wild animal deeply bothered him. Rogue deserved so much better than a future where she was constantly shackled. What made him even angrier was his belief that Rogue didn't share this view with him.

"We should tell the others." He spoke slowly, never letting his eyes leave the collar.

"Do you really think it will work…" Her voice came out quietly again, forcing him to finally spot hints of her true anxiety. She held the item up to her green eyes and let the collar drift towards her neck.

"Drop it!"

The sudden, unfamiliar yell scared Rogue enough, that she literally dropped the collar to the dirty floor and almost fell over when she spun around to see who had yelled.

Both mutants watched with slightly agape mouths as they took in the sight of Mystique standing in the doorway. Remy broke the shocked expression first and whipped out a charged card before the woman could take a step closer to them. Within minutes, the telltale sound of Kurt's teleportation joined their room and left the other team members beside the two southerners. Logan's claws shot out instantly and a large growl escaped his mouth. Jude, unsure who the woman actually was, took a moment to watch the faces of his X-men teammates in hopes they would tell him something.

"Vhat are you doing here?" Kurt, the only one not in an attack position, spoke up from beside Rogue.

"You can't use that collar." Mystique seemed to ignore the question and kept her eyes trained on Rogue as if she knew just how dangerous the girl was at the moment. "Do not put it on."

"Better start explaining yourself," Logan snarled out in an even deeper voice and took a step forward.

"I am here to help Rog-" She started to slowly talk to them until she noted the quick flash on Rogue's face.

"You!" Rogue snarled out so ferociously that even Logan took a small step back from her. "How dare you show step foot on thi-" Rogue clutched her head and bent forward as if she had been punched in the gut, "No!"

"Rogue!" Mystique tried to take a step closer to her adopted daughter, but the pain stricken woman dropped to her knees and continued to yell.

"Don't come closer!" The voice was closer to Rogue's own, but it was not completely clear. "Just stay back from me!"

The X-men watched her with nervous expressions as she started to pull at her white bangs with enough force to possibly tear the strands right out of her head. She shook her face violently and kept her eyes closed, offering them no clue to who was currently winning the battle. Logan dropped his claws for a moment and tried to talk her down with a few calm words, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

"Rogue," Mystique's voice filtered through the room and forced another growl to escape the woman's throat.

Desperate for something, anything, to stop the onslaught of feelings and pain, Rogue reached out and grabbed hold of the collar. She could hear Mystique demanding she not put the device on her neck, but it was too late. All of their voices had become lost whispers to her as she quickly snapped the necklace around her neck.

The electric shock that filled her body was almost instant. The moment she let out a simple breath, the charge began to race through her body. She screamed in agony and started to claw wildly at the collar, but couldn't unhook the device through the pain and challenge from Sunil. Somewhere in the madness of the moment, she felt a pair of hands grab her neck roughly and pry the collar off of her.

When the device let go of her neck, she fell to the floor desperate for a chance to breathe normally again. As her chest heaved uncontrollably, her wide green eyes stared straight ahead to see Remy LeBeau sitting on the floor with his hands twitching uncontrollably. His eyes met hers and she knew instantly that he had been the one willing to electrocute himself to save her. He had gotten hurt because of her actions once again, and she found herself too ashamed to even look at his caring eyes. He deserved so much better than all of this. He deserved so much better than her.

"Rogue?" Kurt's voice came to her as he helped her sit up from the floor. "Are you okay?"

"I think…" She took a shaky breath and tried to stand up on her feet. When she wobbled slightly, Kurt propped her arm over his shoulders and kept an arm around her waist. "I don't know…"

"Those collars are built to attack anyone who isn't a Morph." Mystique stood still in the doorway and showed a little relief on her face that her two children were at least standing like they were not too injured. "If you put that on it will only help his cause."

With her defenses down from the strong attack, Rogue couldn't stop the sudden flash that took hold of her. Something in the words Mystique calmly offered had set Sunil off into a new rampage. Logan shouted for Kurt to take a step away from Rogue, but the mutant refused to leave his sister's side. He watched in quiet horror as the girl's back straightened immediately and her eyes took the scary yellow glow.

"My cause?!" Rogue cackled out in a deep, almost male sounding voice, "You tried to stop me all those years ago, but you would never be able to outsmart the proud Morph revolution!" Kurt tried to edge away from Rogue, but she grabbed hold of his arm with a death grip, "Did you think your little band of rejects could stop me, granddaughter?!"

"Granddaughter?" Kurt whimpered out in confusion as his arm was squeezed harder than he ever felt before.

"I am not your family." Mystique took a moment and let her anger fuel a biting statement, before re-focusing on helping Rogue snap back. "I warn you now, let go of my children or I will kill you."

Rogue laughed crazily and pulled Kurt in front of her face, "This?! This is what has become of our proud bloodline?!"

"Let him go." Mystique's eyebrows dipped lower on her face and she let out a growl that made even Wolverine take a little notice. "You can't win against the Lenox. Either let go now or suffer the consequences, Sunil."

"Give up?" Rogue let go of Kurt's arm for a second, and the boy tried to jump away from her but was stopped by her sudden grab of his tail. "We are only getting started!"

Kurt let out a scream as Rogue suddenly dropped her control and zapped him. She laughed at the sound of the pain, and gave Mystique a cruel smile, before teleporting right out of the room.

Panic set in almost immediately as the group fanned out around the building in desperate search for Kurt and Rogue. Logan knew the elf had a distance limit on his powers, and he prayed that Rogue/Sunil would have to follow that limit. If she was able to send them someplace Kurt had never seen and over two miles away, then they would be almost impossible to track down.

After hours of searching the building and surrounding area came up empty, Logan nervously agreed to let Mystique lead them through the hidden tunnels she knew of in the area. She had lived under Sunil's thumb long enough to see a few of his hiding places. At one point, she had even been considered his eventual right-hand man, but she'd fallen from his positive side through multiple confrontations. Which placed her on the team who were forced to give their lives for the cause.

She would never forget the look in her grandfather's eyes when she refused to turn into the smallest princess. It had been a blow to her, despite their already extremely strained relationship. The only thing that had kept her going that night, was the terrified look in Rogue's eyes. She had seen the princess from a distance multiple times, but that night Alex had looked into Mystique's eyes with the expression that finally broke her heart and convinced her that she had to take the girl away from all of this.

"You said they'd be here!" Remy snapped at Mystique, as they exited the last tunnel and stood in front of the original building once again. He stared at her with sizzling eyes; as his own nerves began to overtake his normally calm exterior. "Where are they, Mystique?"

"How do we know that you aren't part of this whole plan?" Jude added, though he didn't know the entire story of Mystique, he had already decided that he didn't trust her. None of the other people in their group seemed to be happy to see her, and he doubted Remy would have looked at anyone who was helpful like that.

"I told you, that I am here to help my children!" She glared at the boys and didn't let Remy's or any of their stares intimidate her, "If we don't stop Sunil then the entire dimension is going to pay the price."


	12. Rising Tempers And Falling Stalactites

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thank you to everyone who read the previous chapter. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at and read this chapter and story. Thanks to Mrs. Jehilew for her lovely reviews. This one might be a little shorter than the others, but anywho, here it is:**

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Hidden deep within the outlands of the Morphs' underground city was a very nervous Kurt and a consistently pacing Rogue. The young man watched in stunned silence as his sister walked in circles, arguing with herself with such determination, that any viewer would have written her off as insane. The only thing that seemed to separate her tantrum from the ravings of a lunatic was the way her voice and eyes changed with each twist of her body. One moment a deep, manly tone shook the walls and the next a lighter, yet no less angry, feminine voice screamed back.

Kurt clutched his sore arm with his hand and tried to figure out where they were. The walls were rocky and all around their feet were various sharp edges jutting upward to the ceiling. He knew enough about natural features to surmise there was a good chance the top of their cave was also covered in sharp spikes. After taking a slow breath, to calm himself, he looked upwards and noted how many sharp points were decorating the ceiling. When Rogue let loose another yell and foot stomp, he observed a few of the stalactites move ever so slightly.

"Oh, man…" He mumbled under his breath and tried to figure out the second step of his plan. The first step, of course, being to avoid looking at the spikes on the roof again at all cost.

He didn't want to leave his sister alone with Sunil this upset, but if he stayed there was a good chance no one would find their hiding place and help him stop Rogue. Not to mention, with Rogue's current temper there was a good chance they would be impaled at any minute. He had already spotted the only exit to the cave behind the troubled woman. The long and dark tunnel looked somewhat menacing but much less so than the situation he was currently in.

"The revolution will happen with or without your cooperation, princess!"

The scream was so loud and deep, that Kurt jumped in his spot nervously and watched a lone stalactite fall from the ceiling and crash near the cave's exit. Rogue grabbed her head instantly and turned on her heel to stare at the broken pieces.

"Stop this or you will kill us all!" She screamed in her own voice.

"Ha!" Sunil's voice thundered out of her throat as she turned back around to stare at Kurt. "No rock could even scratch me!"

Kurt retreated a step and felt his back hit the smooth cave wall. He took a deep breath and tried to avoid staring at the way Rogue's eyes flashed like a strobe light. He knew his sister was trying her hardest to fight back, but he couldn't relax into the idea that she could stop Sunil from attacking or killing him. There was only so much strength Rogue could muster before her body gave out and Sunil tried to take her for another round of destruction.

"Not you! Kurt." Rogue stared out at the nervous Kurt with tearful green eyes, "If you don't stop this you will kill your own grandson!"

The area grew quiet for a moment as if her words hit a chord with Sunil. She took a step forward, her eyes still flashing between green and yellow, and stared Kurt right in the face. Her eyes squinted as if she was trying to measure whether or not she approved of him as a person. After an excruciatingly long wait, Rogue's eyes flashed back to full yellow and her hand shot out to pin Nightcrawler against the wall.

"This…" She paused for a moment, tilting her head to try and get a full view, " _creature_ , is no relative of mine."

"But I am!" Kurt suddenly piped up as the hand on his chest pushed harder. "I am Mystique's son and I have been supporting your cause."

 _What am I saying?_ The words felt so strange coming out of his mouth that he was almost as surprised by them as Rogue/Sunil was. It had been a very long time since he said he was related to Mystique, and he certainly wasn't excited about what he knew about Sunil's cause. All he knew about the old man currently talking to him, was that he wanted the Morphs to be in control and to get rid of the Lenox. Wasn't a cause he figured most sane people could support.

Had he been in a less life-threatening situation, he would have probably been more concerned with the discovery that his family and Rogue's had been killing each other for so many years. The idea already left his heart with waves of pain and anxiety, but he couldn't stop and address the problem now. As he stared into the yellow eyes trying to switch back to green, he figured he had to say whatever he needed to make it out of the cave.

"I spent years studying the people of Earth." He rambled on as his brain tried to plan what his next move would be if Sunil bought the story, "Why do you think I have spent so much time with the princess? My mother… My mother left me on Earth to make sure we didn't lose the last mimic."

The grip on his chest lightened slightly and he took that as a sign to increase his story, "I have studied the royal family too. They trust me and I have even been in their most secure castle rooms."

It honestly surprised Kurt, when Rogue took her hand fully away from his chest and took a step back. She nodded her head slowly as if she somehow was starting to believe the story he offered. The whole thing was ridiculous, but if it was working he wasn't going to question the plan. Instead, he decided to push the whole thing to a riskier level.

"They will come looking for you." He told her slowly, "Why don't you let me keep watch outside?"

"What?!" Rogue demanded and Kurt suddenly regretted his words.

"Well, I just…" He stumbled slightly, and then pulled himself together. "I can keep an eye out for the X-men while you plan your next move."

This answer seemed to give Rogue and Sunil something to think about. They took yet another step away and turned their face away from the young man. He expected Sunil to be the type to make decisions on the spur of the moment. Most power hungry people were not the best at thinking things through, in his opinion. Either way, he wasn't planning to wait and hear the answer. He stayed still until they started pacing again then went for the leap.

In an instant, Kurt teleported across the room and to the exit. Rogue caught sight of his motion and instantly lost the last shred of her patience. She let out a scream so loud and deep the whole cave seemed to shake. Kurt gulped and took off down the hall at full speed; still trying to convince himself the only way to help her was to get reinforcements. Behind him, Rogue yelled out in a masculine voice causing the stalactites to crash around him. He picked up his speed and prayed Rogue's strength would keep her from being hurt back in the main room of the cave.

Gambit felt the ground begin to shake as soon as he stepped foot on the tall cliff he scaled for a better view of the vacant scenery. Instantly, he crouched down and tried to stabilize himself as the shaking became more intense. Thankfully, the rock stayed in place and he was able to stand up when the shaking stopped as suddenly as it had appeared.

He had been searching for at least a couple of hours and had yet to come up with anything that resembled a clue about Rogue and Kurt's whereabouts. Logan had boldly informed him he would have been a better candidate for the search than Remy because his senses were far keener. Which did little to help ease the young man's already edgy mood.

Personally, Remy disliked the idea of having Logan go with him, but with so little results to show after his explorations, he was starting to miss having the grumpy Canadian nearby. The X-Men had their way of doing things like search and rescue, and, he could admit, they were effective most of the time. But this case was different. This time it was extremely personal and he would not, could not, leave it up to someone else.

Besides, neither he nor Logan trusted Mystique to keep her word and actually help them, so at least one of them needed to keep her under close observation. It was Jude's idea to go ahead and take the woman to the Meridan mansion so she could explain everything she knew about the whole situation to the queen. Mystique had been somewhat reluctant to leave the search, and Remy could only speculate what emotion was fueling that hesitancy.

She claimed that she wanted to be there for her children, but the children she was supposedly concerned about seemed unwilling to even talk to her. He knew enough about Rogue's life to realize how strange her relationship with Mystique really was, and it convinced him that even if the woman wanted to help, putting her in a room with Rogue would only cause more trouble. Who knows what would happen if Rogue flew into a rage and gave Sunil the upper hand? Which is exactly how the agreement that Logan and Jude would escort Mystique back to the mansion was finalized.

Remy could only hope that by the time he found Rogue and figured out a way to calm her down, the others would have some kind of good news. All he had to do was think of some way to turn off Sunil for even a moment to give Rogue a break. If she could have at least a few minutes of rest, he was almost certain she could keep fighting until they thought of a new plan.

"Remy!" Kurt's voice hit him almost as hard as the blue man's head hit his chest.

The pair tumbled down the side of the rocky structure, something Remy was growing more and more aggravated with, and crashed on the hard ground. The blue mutant groaned and rubbed his sore head as he tried to regain his train of thought. Remy sat up quickly and coughed out a few French words Kurt didn't know, but suspected may be curse words. Remy had wanted a clue, and this was about as big a clue as he could find. Or, in this case, as big a clue that could find him.

"Kurt?" He rubbed his sore chest, "Where did you come from? Where is Rogue?"

"The cave." He stood up swiftly and scanned the area for any sign of his sister.

He had been teleporting as far as he could see over-and-over again for the past half-hour. Rogue never appeared behind him, but he definitely felt the strong desire to keep moving as quickly as he could. When he spotted Remy standing on the rock, he had been hopeful that the whole group would be with him. Now that he was realizing it was just the two of them, his urge to run was starting to kick in again.

"We need to get the others! She is still in there, but if Sunil is still in there," He pointed at his head, "I don't think the cave in will hold her long."

"Wait," Remy stood up himself and tried to spot this cave Kurt was shouting about, "Where is the cave? We can't just leave her out here."

" _Remy_ ," Kurt stressed the name and put a hand on his shoulder, "I don't want to leave her either." His voice was genuine and Remy could tell how much it hurt the young man to talk about this, "But right now, I don't know if she can even stop herself from hurting us. We need help, Remy. We can't help her until there is some kind of plan."

For a moment, Remy held his breath and weighed his options. He knew that the woman he cared about was trapped inside a cave and could possibly be injured. On the other hand, he also knew that Kurt had a good point when he said they couldn't just bust in and expect Rogue to welcome them with open arms.

He didn't like to say it, even to himself, but his girlfriend was not the same person at this moment. She was fighting something bigger than he could completely understand, and it scared him a little. They needed the other X-Men. But he just couldn't face himself if he left her in that cave alone and hurting. No matter the risk, he wasn't going back without Rogue.

"You should go warn the X-men." He told Kurt suddenly, "I am not going back without Rogue."

"What if she can't stop herself from hurting you?" Kurt asked with worry in his voice for a teammate he never realized he would become friends with. "You could be..."

"I made her a promise that we would get through this. And I am keeping it."

Kurt watched in silence as Remy stepped forward and headed straight towards the cave. He only had a vague idea where he was going, based on the direction Kurt had come from, but he was determined to find the spot. His dedication impressed Kurt and the boy felt his own courage slowly start growing. Maybe, if they worked together, they could calm Rogue down enough to get her back to the mansion to hear Mystique's news.

"Wait," He jogged to catch up to the other man, "You will get there faster with my help. Besides, she might still believe her newest watchdog more than you."

"Thanks." Remy nodded as Kurt wrapped an arm around him so they could move quicker, "But what watchdog are you talking about?"

"Long story," Kurt sighed, and they disappeared from sight.


	13. She Is My Daughter

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thank you to everyone who read the previous chapter. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at and read this chapter and story. Seems weird to publish stuff so quickly, but the other one was a tad bit shorter, so I added this chapter too.**

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The sights of Meridan were something Mystique never expected to witness again. She escaped the Lenox dimension so long ago, that she had almost forgotten what it felt like to walk through streets filled with banners and billboards promoting the Interdimensional Games. Normally, there would have been people all over the streets, happily displaying their team shirts and vendors struggling to keep up with the demand for their products. Even she knew the barren streets and vacant stores they passed were a very bad sign.

Lenox had been a hard place to grow up, to say the least, but she had actually enjoyed those rare occasions she could sneak out of the Morph lands and watch the games with other Lenoxians. Part of her once dreamed of being able to compete in a few of the events, despite the anti-Morph rules. It was one of the nicest memories from her youth. Granted, there were not exactly a lot of them fighting for spots on that list.

As Logan and Jude marched her towards the back entrance of the duke's home, she let out a sigh and braced herself for what would be a very interesting, if not unproductive, talk with the woman she couldn't believe was alive. Sunil's original plan, as Raven knew it, had been to start testing his machine on the kids, before moving on to the queen, and eventually Rogue and her father.

If the queen was alive after all of the visits she was bound to have had with the machine, Mystique could admit she was a little impressed by how strong the woman's drive to live must be. What kept Lydia going in that place after everything she saw and lived through? The question genuinely bothered her to the point, that she half considered asking the queen.

Raven knew _exactly_ what it felt like to be hooked up to that machine. One of the cruelest things Sunil decided to do was test the earlier versions of the machine on his own family. The ones he could reasonably make do without, at least. She had been a receiver the first time. Her grandfather told her it was a great honor, but the feeling of someone else's thoughts and powers flowing into her was one of the most painful things she ever experienced.

Emotionally, it hurt to watch the man they selected as a giver be dragged to the machine and it was even worse to hear him scream as the device absorbed him. Physically, the sudden flood of energy racing into her body felt like a blistering fire spreading through her every nerve. Trying to think with someone else's terrified thoughts and powers mixing with her own had been maddening. For days afterward, she couldn't be sure if what she thought or said was actually from her or that poor man. Thankfully, the aftereffects seemed to have lessened over the years, to the point she no longer sensed another human inside of her head. It was part of the reason, deep down, she felt that she could understand Rogue's head better than most of the others.

The guards watched the group with suspicious stares, silently questioning whom the dark haired woman between Logan and Jude was. They hadn't seen her before and with the high-security orders, they were not going to tolerate strangers. Quickly after climbing into the X-men's car, Mystique altered her look to attract less attention from any passersby. Rogue's old betrothed, who surprisingly, to her, grew up to be a tall, muscular man, had watched her the entire time she spent changing her appearance.

Raven knew he probably had no idea who she really was, but he was smart enough to know she was a Morph. No, the way he watched her was more like he somehow remembered her. But that was nearly impossible since her interactions had only been with Rogue and Griffin that night. He couldn't have known how many times she had walked past him and Rogue in disguise all those years ago.

Both men vouched for her and the guards reluctantly let them inside the extravagant home. As they walked down the long hallway, to what she assumed was some type of office area or study, Logan grumbled out a threat about her staying in line or being turned to confetti. It appeared the gruff man truly thought his words would scare her. Logan could lay down a serious threat, she'd give him that much, but she wasn't going to pay him any mind. He knew as well as she did, that she had information important to stopping Rogue and Sunil. As long as she was a valuable player in this strategy, then no one would hurt her.

"Logan," The professor was the first person to address the group as they entered the large study. He gently tapped Lydia's shoulder and the woman looked up from the papers in her hands to see that they were not only missing members, but they somehow gained a new team member as well.

"Where are the others? Where is Alex?" She questioned the three of them with growing concern.

"Somewhere in the Morphs' land," Logan nudged Mystique forward and received a glare in the process, "Stripes found a collar, but after _she_ showed up Sunil started acting up and Rogue teleported out with Kurt. Remy is still looking for them, but we came back to get reinforcements and drop her off."

Lydia walked closer to the strange woman and tried her hardest to remember where she might have seen that face before. Her heart was already beating faster than she thought possible at the idea of her daughter and friends out in the Morph land with Alex's mind so unstable, but she managed to focus on the new woman. What was it about this strange lady that set Sunil off?

"Who are you?" She finally asked and watched with a wide pair of eyes as Mystique suddenly dropped her disguise. "What… Who are you? Tell me, now."

Mystique wasn't surprised by the queen's sudden demands when she actually saw whom she was talking to. The royals hadn't been too fond of Morphs back in the day, so why should they be any different now? She really didn't expect anything from the Lenox family. Even without her grandfather and great-grandfather's views on Lenox royals being shoved at her over-and-over again through her youth, she just didn't have a high opinion of them. The only reason she agreed to be this close to Lydia was because of the only Lenox family member she did care about; Rogue.

"You can call me Mystique, Lydia."

Unlike everyone else in the dimension, there was no sign of respect or wonderment in the woman's tone. Lydia didn't expect people to love her automatically because she was wealthy and from a regal family, but she hadn't expected such bitterness to come out of Mystique's mouth. The tone almost sounded like the other woman was blaming Lydia for something when it probably should have been the other way around.

"You were the one that took her that night," Lydia said so softly the group almost missed hearing it.

Through many long, late night discussions, within both women wept multiple times, Alex had slowly explained her life story to Lydia. She had listened quietly to every word and held Alex tightly in her warm arms when the memories threatened to overwhelm the girl. A lot of those stories involved Mystique in her various roles as foster mother, fake best friend, and multiple others. This woman had hurt her daughter deeply, whether Alex would outwardly admit it or not, but she had also saved her life. It was a strange feeling racing through Lydia's heart as she questioned whether to thank the woman or attack her where she stood.

"Yes." Mystique answered suddenly. She knew Lydia was most likely aware of Raven's past where Rogue was involved, but she was not going to let that change her confident demeanor. They had more important things to talk about than those past events anyway. "And I have information about Rogue and Sunil."

Without waiting for anyone to invite her to the table, she strode past Lydia and took a seat. The motion was performed so casually that Jude and the others found themselves lost in surprise for a moment. He stared at Lydia with a confused expression, before following the queen over to the table. It was obvious from the way Ororo, Professor Xavier, Jude, and Lydia sat on one side while Mystique sat on the other, what team everyone was on. Logan, unable to relax in Mystique's presence, leaned against the door and watched the proceedings with a frown.

"What happened to the collar?" Lydia asked keeping her posture as straight as possible to appear more confident.

"That won't work." Mystique shook her head firmly and kept the stare strong as she watched Lydia's blue eyes. "Those collars can stop certain powers, but Sunil was the only one who could control them. With that on, he could find new ways to hurt her, until she either listens to him or is too tired to fight back."

Lydia broke their stare to take note of the expressions on Jude and Logan's faces. Jude was outwardly saddened, as he appeared to be picturing the collar experience again. He sighed softly and rubbed his temple, somehow managing to avoid her gaze. Logan, who she knew was better at hiding his feelings, took a slow breath and adjusted his position against the doorway. The mere idea that he was acting slightly uncomfortable at the thought of what happened in the Morphs' land sent a cold shiver down her back.

She looked back to Mystique and tried to remember every detail Alex told her. Lydia knew about the great escape, the fostering, and the Earth issues, but it didn't explain why Mystique would have such detailed information about the collars. From what her daughter said, Mystique had been a _random_ member of the group Griffin planned to kill once they transformed into the royal family. If she were so sickeningly disposable to the Morphs, why would she be told such big information? Was she more than just Kurt's mother and the woman that happened to be at the right time and place to help Alex?

"Logan," Lydia spoke up once again and spared only a short glance in the rugged man's direction, before looking back to Mystique, "You said that Sunil reacted when Alex saw Mystique, right?" Logan grunted a quick yes and watched the scene with growing interest, "Why would Sunil react that strongly to seeing you?"

"Because" Mystique never lost her balanced tone, "He was my family once."

Everyone grew silent as the idea settled over the room. Professor Xavier gently rubbed his chin and wondered just how much he didn't know about Mystique. He wanted to believe there was good in every person, and he knew Mystique loved her children, even if she hadn't been the world's best mother, but he never realized that she went against her family to save Rogue. Obviously, her heart had not been so hardened by years of anti-Lenox teachings that she was willing to ignore a scared Rogue. She was willing to risk her own life to try and save another; a noble gesture in anyone's book.

"Look," Mystique added quickly, not planning on discussing her ex-family with Lydia, "We don't have time for this. Every second we wait, Sunil is growing stronger."

Despite her desperate need for more information, Lydia agreed and pressed onward, "What information do you have for us?"

"My sources claim that if she isn't stopped soon, Sunil will use Rogue's abilities to destroy the entire dimension. The future for this place is death unless we can find a way to curb Sunil."

"Why would he go through all the trouble to start a war if that is his plan?" Storm asked from her spot beside the professor.

"It isn't what Sunil wants, the only people he wants to be rid of are the Lenox royals. The rest he needs to feed his overinflated ego." Mystique explained, "The information is not exact, but I am almost certain it has to do with Rogue's refusal to give into him. If she fights to the end, it is possible her boost of power could create a blast felt all over Lenox. As it stands right now," Mystique sighed as she relayed the story told to her only a month earlier, "Rogue has her power and her father's through Sunil. As strong as she is, she is nowhere near the strength her father was at his death."

Lydia bit her lip, thinking painfully of her lost love, but pushed herself to stay on topic for the sake of their daughter, "And she can't control something that big if Sunil unleashes it?"

"Exactly," Mystique nodded her head firmly, "We must stop Sunil, while Rogue still has enough strength to fight and keep her mind together. If they both unleash their full power reserves, then everything and everyone will be destroyed."

"So what's in it for you?" Logan finally grumbled out. He knew she would not have appeared without another agenda. It would be nice to think she just cared enough about Kurt and Stripes to help them out, but that was not Mystique. There was something she was not telling them, "Why are you suddenly so _helpful_?"

"Logan," Storm gave him a disapproving stare from across the room. She knew the same things he did about the woman before them, but she didn't see how badgering the only person with helpful information could be beneficial.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Mystique snapped at him, her nerves beginning to fray, "I am not going to let my daughter die. _Someone_ has to be there to help her."

"Take that back," The words were vocalized with such an irate tone, it was hard to believe Lydia had been the one to utter them. "Take that back, right now."

"What? Take back the fact that I saved _Anna's_ life and your idiotic dimension sent her to face that monster alone?" She refused to use the name Alex. No, that little girl had been left alone by her so-called family to try and escape Sunil. Anna Marie was the strong, tough-skinned woman Mystique helped raise. It was her Anna and Kurt that she was going to save from this horrible place.

"Or do you expect me to ignore that it was because of _you_ she absorbed the creature that will torture her until her last breath?"

Mystique only knew snippets of information from her various sources, but she had been told that Rogue finding her mother was a giant part of why the battle with Sunil happened. She didn't believe it was a sudden burst of love for the Lenox dimension that convinced Rogue to face that challenge. No, she was almost certain it was seeing Lydia that convinced her to stay and fight. If Lydia had any real concern for the girl, in Mystique's bitter opinion, she would have forced Rogue to leave the moment she saw her.

The room grew extremely cold as Lydia glared at Mystique with such ferocity, that it was almost hard for the others to watch. There was no sign of ice or snow on the ground, but each of the X-Men could see their breath as the uncomfortable scene staggered forward. Lydia's face wrinkled into an expression of pure disgust, they had seen only once before, when she dared to slap Sunil. Even though her attention was directed at Mystique, the entire group felt their moods plummet into something so severe it was physically sickening.

"The only reason you are still standing, is because you once saved the life of _my_ daughter," Lydia stood up from her chair and planted her hands firmly on the table in front of her, "And you may have information you haven't told us yet. Still, this is my land, and you will not speak of events you have no knowledge of."

Lydia stood as rigidly as her body physically could and shot Mystique the scariest glare yet, "And if you ever claim to be Alexandria's mother again, I will get rid of you myself."


	14. I've Been

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Do Not Own The Chapter Title Song, 'I've Been' Performed By J. Robert Spencer From The Musical Next To Normal.**

 **Thank you for looking at the past chapter, everyone. I appreciate you guys and gals reading the chapters. Thanks to Mrs. Jehilew for another lovely review. This chapter has a lot of stuff from the song, 'I've Been' from the musical Next To Normal. Some of the lines are from that song. It is a little weird putting them in, but it just says so much about these kinds of emotions. So a big thank you to Next to Normal and the song 'I've Been.'**

 **Anywho, here is the chapter:**

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Remy narrowed his eyes and flung the charged cards with pinpoint accuracy. The tree, his doomed target, broke apart instantly, sending sizzling chunks of bark flying through the air. It did little to squelch his overwhelming emotions, so he sent out another two rounds of cards, before stopping to try and catch his breath.

Multiple employees stopped just feet from him to offer warnings or stern reprimands about the multiple attacks on the mansion's well-groomed garden, but each one was quieted and pushed away by a mere look at his eyes. The normally warm crimson color highlighted by a dash of mischievousness, had been replaced by something so hard and dark that it genuinely scared the servants.

Not that he cared in the slightest what they thought.

No, Remy had been numb for what felt like hours. Digging through an avalanche of rocks to find your girlfriend's limp body could do that to a man, the over-tired mutant figured. He had wrapped his coat around her then held her, as tightly as was physically possible, as if worried she would vanish at any moment. Whatever went down between Rogue and Sunil, she had managed to survive. At least that much her weak pulse promised him.

They ripped her from his embrace the moment the group arrived in Meridan. A large search and rescue team had greeted Remy, Kurt, and Rogue at the edge of the Morphs' land and brought them back to the mansion. Remy knew the guards, and even his own teammates, watched him with a wide range of emotions during the trip, but he couldn't bring himself to think about anything past the exhausted woman resting her head on his shoulder. Let them think what they wanted about him. All that mattered was his Rogue. The very same Rogue that did not want to see him…

The nervous doctor had stumbled into the waiting room and barely looked Remy in the eyes as he said, "Her highness is awake."

"I need to see her." He explained briefly while walking past the doctor. Every minute he wasn't moving his brain screamed at him for wasting time.

"I'm afraid," The old man touched his shoulder and stopped Remy dead in his tracks with one, simple sentence, "She has ordered that you are not allowed to see her."

 _How could she do this to me_? He bitterly thought and threw another rage filled trio of cards at the smoking stump.

Yes, Rogue was scared. He understood she was deeply terrified of even herself. But, damn it all, Remy LeBeau was fucking terrified too.

Maybe she refused to let him near her, but that didn't change the simple fact that _he_ _needed_ _her_. He needed the comfort of those green eyes, the calming smell of her hair, that velvety quality of her voice when she called him their favorite silly nicknames. He had to know that she was still breathing, still thinking, and, most importantly, still fighting.

Internally, every one of his muscles was aching and even breathing was starting to become painful. He had to help her, but how the hell was he supposed to? The questions swirling around his head easily threatened to drown the man in misery. Why did no one in this dimension have answers? The truth of it all appeared to be that no one had a clue how her power actually worked.

The realization that they were on their own wasn't new, but it sent icy chills through his slouched frame all the same. Remy had held her through the tears and the agony, and every time her mind went flying he kept his feet firmly on the floor. But now it felt like he was strolling right beside her as the black hole of destruction opened wide.

"We will stop this." He said out loud to try and spur on the last of his inner strength.

What else could he do but march onward with that undying resolve? He had to keep it together, if not for Rogue's sake, then for his own. Breaking down and telling anyone about the worries shouting in his head, was not something he saw as acceptable. Besides, the only person he really wanted to turn to for comfort was the very last person who needed to hear them.

Remy's jaw hurt from being clenched so tightly for so long, but he didn't release it. The pain helped him stay focused and centered. He felt the effects of this nightmare down to his bones. Every inch of him, mental and physical, suffered the fatigue and emotional drain of watching Rogue fight herself.

In the end, it seemed the heartbroken man's was just a slower suicide. He stared at the last card in the deck, a tattered and faded, king of hearts. With the gentlest charge, he turned the card into ash almost instantly.

"Come on Gumbo," A familiar voice called gruffly to him as the ashes danced in the wind, "Destroying the garden isn't gonna help anyone."

Remy looked up at the man, with distant eyes and mumbled, "Helps me."

"Well," Logan was unfazed by the emotionless response, "get over it. We're trying this my way now."

If Remy hadn't already been overwhelmed with the awareness that something was terribly wrong in Lenox, the realization would have hit him the moment he found himself sitting beside Logan at the kitchen table. Two beers, one already half way finished and the other barely touched, sat on the tall counter. The older man swigged down the rest of his and motioned towards Remy's drink as if the Cajun had somehow missed the beverage being placed in front of him.

"Didn't think they had beer here." Remy finally spoke up and busied his hands by twisting the bottle with his thumb and index finger.

"Got one of the guards to buy a case when we got here."

It was an interesting ordeal, to say the least. Seemed the snootier members of Lenox were practically swimming in that bubbly crap they served at every party. A good, solid beer was available, but the idea that anyone associated with the royal family would want one sent the guard into a look Logan could only describe as horror. He still found the whole dimension pretty strange, but when they brought him a case of Lenox's most popular brand, he had to admit they knew how to make a damn strong drink.

"That is the last one." He added, knowing buying any more be near impossible since everyone was locked away in their houses, "Drink it or give it here. But don't waste it, Cajun."

Remy gave him a curt nod and took a big swig out of the bottle. Logan gave one smug laugh when Remy's eyebrows wrinkled and he set the bottle back on the counter hard. It wasn't like he was a lightweight when it came to alcohol. Actually, he was probably more versed in the expensive stuff than his kitchen companion. But that Lenox beer packed more of a punch then he was ready for at the moment.

"Know how to make a good one here, don't they?" Logan gave his own bottle one more drink to get the last bit of liquid out.

"That is one word for it," Remy grumbled and took a slower sip the second time.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but Remy couldn't call it awkward either. Even without telling Logan the thoughts beating his over-tired brain, Remy found a small amount of comfort in sitting next to someone who felt as strongly about Rogue as him. Then again, why wasn't Logan in her room now?

"Did she ban you too?" He took another drink, almost wishing the extra strong beer would wash away the feelings brought on by his memories.

"She banned everyone." Logan sounded as displeased as Remy with the situation, "Even her mom."

Did he seriously say that even Lydia was not allowed to visit Rogue? What was going on in that woman's head? It was like she was already curling into a ball and admitting defeat…

The unavoidable idea slammed into his foggy brain with lighting strength intensity; She _was_ giving up. They could keep her alive by locking her in a safe room, but they couldn't make her eat, sleep, or do anything more than sit there. It was probably driving Sunil to unimaginable ferocity since his host refused to keep going. He needed her alive, almost as desperately as Remy did.

As the similarity between him and Sunil added a new thorn to his inner list of anxieties, Remy took an extra large gulp of his beer.

"I said finish it, not swallow it all at once, Gumbo." Logan shook his head and rested one of his elbows on the counter. Sure, he had never been that big of a fan of Remy, even before Fabio started messing with Rogue, but seeing him this far gone was still tough for Logan. "Look, you won't help her by getting drunk off your ass."

"Says the homme who invited Remy out for a beer?"

"Wasn't about the beer." Logan admitted and felt himself internally groan as he dared to try and make a connection with Remy, "Thought you might want to talk to someone."

This was not Logan's area of expertise. Emotions, in his opinion, were more like germs that you try to destroy with the strongest cleaner available while knowing full well there would always be some unfortunately left over. He tried his hardest to avoid becoming attached to anyone or anything in his life and he succeed for the most part.

At least, he had felt pretty successful until a certain silver haired woman entered the picture and convinced him to join Xavier's group. It taken him ages to figure out those feelings, and even now he felt strange stepping into a romantic relationship. But for every ounce of his brain that yelled run away, another portion urged him forward. He was certain she could do much better, but he found himself somewhat selfishly enjoying the positive feelings her smile afforded his troubled mind. When the whole thing with Stripes first began, Ororo was the only person who knew what to say and do to ease his worries and help him handle the gravity of the situation.

Maybe it was her comforting nature that took away a bit of the shock when she approached him about talking to Remy? Couldn't say he was glad every woman he cared about seemed to have a soft spot for Gumbo. Really, it baffled him what they saw in the thief. But no matter what he thought, Ororo and Rogue both seemed to like the man. She'd told Logan over and over again when he held her in his arms, that she was terrified Rogue running away might destroy Remy. Now that it seemed so heartbreakingly plausible that they could lose Stripes for good, Ororo's worries had jumped to a much higher level.

So, when she requested he go and pull Remy away from his terrifying tree attacks, Logan agreed. Honestly, Logan had no earthly idea what he could do or say to someone who was beaten up over the very same thing that was driving him crazy. All she told him when he mentioned said problem, was that it made him even more qualified to talk to Remy. What did that even mean?

"You," Remy set the empty container down and raised a quizzical eyebrow, "Want to talk to me?"

"Can't say it was my favorite idea," Logan grumbled. "But you won't talk about Rogue with anyone."

"There is nothing to say." He immediately lost any visible emotion, "We _will_ fix this."

"Were tryi-"

"That isn't good enough!" Remy growled as his long held together shell finally started to crack.

They couldn't _just try_. You just tried to make it to work on time, and you just tried to make a good grade on a test. You never, ever, _just tried_ to save the life of the person you love. This time it was clear. He was absolutely certain that he would get her through this and back to her old self.

But how was he supposed to do it when she gave up? Remy knew she had been terribly hurt in her life, but this was the worst they had ever seen. How many times could they drag her back to her senses then watch her explode again? Rogue seemed to be losing more and more of herself as the attacks became more frequent. What happened when she lost the last of her strength and couldn't fight Sunil at all?

"I don't…" He stumbled on the words as his shoulders shook softly and his hands curled into fists, "I am scared, Logan… I sit here watching every glimmer of light leave her eyes and I can't do a fucking thing about it! I'm powerless to help her and I am honestly terrified that I am going to lose her…" Remy took a slow breath and rubbed his tired eyes before adding, "I can't lose the woman I love."

Logan sat up a little straighter at that admission. He figured Remy was teetering on the edge of a breakdown, but he hadn't expected to hear the word 'love'. Remy kept his head titled away from Logan, but the man could practically smell the tears sitting in the corner of his eyes. For the first time since his Rogue had kissed Remy at the Lenox ball, Logan found himself almost approving of their relationship.

"You tell her that?"

As twisted as it seemed, even Logan could realize how deeply those two felt about each other. Good or bad they were in this thing together. Rogue pushed away to keep him safe and Gambit fought every barrier with all the strength he could muster to do just the same for her.

"Not exactly the romantic moment Remy was hoping for."

Logan could sense Remy's defenses kicking back into gear and his normal flippant attitude taking over to cover the true emotions he just shared, "Screw romantic."

"And yet, Stormy still chases after you." He forced out a joke, not wanting to even think that he had admitted his internal fears to Logan. He needed to stay strong no matter what. It was the only way to keep pushing himself to fight.

"Look," Logan growled out, choosing to ignore the mention of his private relationship, "That kid is going through hell in there and you are going through it out here. Forget any of that sappy junk and tell her. Give her something to hold onto and keep fighting for damnit."

The words struck a chord through Gambit's protective shell and forced him to actually think about his options. He opened his mouth, unsure what he would say or ask on the subject, but almost craving more discussions with Logan. The gruff man cut him off by holding a hand in front of his face and tilting his ear towards the kitchen door.

"Something is wrong." Logan whispered in a firm voice and stood up from his stool as guards started to race past them and towards the main stairwell, "We got to move, now!"


	15. You Don't Know

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Do Not Own The Song 'You Don't Know' From The Musical 'Next to Normal' Either.**

 **Thank you to everyone for looking at the past chapter. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at and read this story. Thanks to Jehilew for her sweet reviews. Yes, this is another chapter to have a 'Next to Normal' song that helped the story chapter make it out of editing. It might still be rough, but we will see what everyone thinks. Thanks again and here is the newest chapter:**

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Lydia felt more emotions swarm her then she believed humanly possible when her daughter was brought back to the mansion. Every time she thought her heart couldn't take any more pain, it surprised her by continuing to beat just as strong, if not more so than before. Vivid hallucinations of losing her children one by one, cradling her husband as he lay in pain in their cell, and watching her only surviving child nearly die fighting a monster continued to dance through her subconscious without respite.

Lydia survived many challenges during her troubled years spent in the Morphs' land, but now it seemed her internal strength and grit were starting to drop considerably. Everything they thought was certain; Alex growing up, getting married, starting a life for herself, or just being simply happy and safe, was fading farther and farther away. All she wanted was to protect her daughter from any more pain. She prayed with each breath she took that she could take Alex's place and rescue her from any more trauma.

When word came through the head of Meridan's hospital, an elderly doctor who insisted on treating the princess without the interruptions of her well-meaning, but medically inexperienced friends and family, that Alex had woken up, a strange mix of happiness and fear spread throughout the mansion. The fact Lydia could be _anything_ but completely thrilled to know her daughter was awake and alive made the stressed queen battle waves of guilt induced nausea. She took slow, deliberate breaths to calm her stomach and harshly berated herself internally for having a moment of weakness. She couldn't do that. She could not give up on her daughter.

The first thing Lydia noticed when she entered the private room adjacent to the mansion's small medical bay, was the chains. Thick wrist shackles connected to the wall by a long interlocking metal chain held down Rogue's wrists. Anger flooded every fiber of Lydia's being forcing her to stomp over to her daughter's side with a look of pure determination. She wasn't going to stand for this! She was not going to watch her daughter be bound and chained like some rabid creature.

"Who did this?" She demanded and reached for the shackle on Rogue's left wrist. "I will get these off of you right now and personally deal with anyone who dared to-"

"Mom…" Rogue's voice was soft and scratchy as if she had been screaming far too loudly and far too long.

"No," Lydia shook her head and tried to grab her daughter's wrist again when she yanked it out of the woman's reach, "Let me get these off of you, Alex. It will be okay. I promise -"

" _No_!" Alex pulled her wrists back from her mother and stood as far away from Lydia as was physically possible with her bonds, "Stop this! We both know it isn't going to be okay."

"Alex…"

"You need to get out of here." She felt her heart break apart piece by piece as the hard words tumbled out of her mouth. Why didn't they understand? Forgetting about her would be the best solution for everyone. The others listened when she demanded to be left alone. Why didn't Lydia run off too? The emotions swelling inside of Rogue's chest threatened to drown her, but she couldn't just sit back and wait till her mother was hurt.

"I am not leaving you, Alex." The words were strangely firm as iron and yet also completely filled with the true love of a mother for her child, "You are my daughter and I will never give up on you."

"I am," Rogue added slowly, finding herself unable to keep staring into Lydia's moist blue eyes, "the monster."

"Alexandria Gracelyn Rose Lenox," Lydia gripped her upper arms firmly and shook the young woman as if in desperation to shake the ideas right out of her daughter's head, "You are one of the most important parts of my life. You are _my daughter_ and I love you. Never believe that you are _anything_ less than one of the four most important people in mine and your father's lives!"

Rogue wanted to believe her mother's words. Oh, how she craved the certain security they could have offered her if the situation was different. She wanted to stop running and let the people around her hold her close and remind her that she was loved, but she couldn't do it. How many hospital patients were currently nursing severe wounds because of her? The guard with half of his face burned, the random citizens caught in her rampage, Victoria's broken ribs, Lydia's broken, or at least most likely to be, broken heart, and of course poor Remy who did nothing but try and help this psycho.

"I know this is hard Alex," Lydia's words were softer in volume but had not lost their emotional strength, "Please, honey. Try to let go of some of your doubts and let us help you. You can trust us to keep you safe."

"You don't know!" The ferocity of the words surprised even Rogue for a moment. Her eyes darted to the side, trying to hide the fear, shame, and genuine tears threatening to fall at any moment.

They wanted to be there for Rogue, but her loved ones just couldn't help this time. No one knew how much energy it took just to lift her head and step forward on her own two feet. It was as if she was trying to scream underwater. Never making a sound but practically killing herself by even trying to utter a desperate plea for help in the suffocating darkness. She couldn't bear to think of the future when her last resolve faded, but how could she cling to the past either? Memories of her lost family drifted through her brain and she could almost feel one psyche in particular cackle.

No, Lydia and the others could never really understand. She didn't blame them for not realizing the truth or trying continuously to tell her to let go and accept they would be there to catch her. It was all her family and friends had left before accepting the finality of the situation.

For Rogue, it was more like a tidal wave of overwhelming sensations. As if she was standing on a cliff side and never knew when she'd dive. Living an unending nightmare of terror where she fell and never hit the ground. How could she ever consider that anyone would understand such wild and devastating emotions without riding the train wreck themselves? They could never understand what it felt like to die alive.

The raw pain flashed through her head with greater strength, alerting her to oncoming danger. She pulled away from Lydia's embrace, with tears still threatening to fall from her saddened eyes as she tried to keep Sunil down. Rogue was panting and swaying on her feet, but as she looked back up to her mother, she managed to keep her right mind steady.

The sense of panic that she couldn't be trusted this close to Lydia, was growing by leaps and bounds, forcing her to snap out a loud, "Go away!"

"Alex," Lydia's voice broke slightly and the sound almost crumpled Rogue to her knees. "Let me help you. Talk to me. At least let me take off those horrible things…"

"Don't you get it?!" Rogue yelled as salty streaks of liquid raced down her pale cheeks and her head started to pound, " _I_ made them put these on me! This was _my_ choice!"

Lydia reached a hand out, desperate to wipe the tears of sorrow flooding down Rogue's cheeks, "Alex, I-"

The color of the young woman's eyes turned yellow so quickly, Lydia couldn't take a breath let alone a single step back from her daughter before she attacked. The hand shot out and clutched Lydia's neck with so much force the woman's head snapped back as she was drug up to Rogue's face. A dark smile spread across the princess' face as the tears stopped flowing and a deep voice greeted Lydia.

"There is no Alex," Rogue's other hand let out a set of claws, holding the sharp daggers against her mother's abdomen, "Say it. Tell me exactly who I am."

"Alex." Lydia furrowed her brows and stared into her daughter's eyes with as much strength as she could. She prayed that her daughter would hear her through all of the mental confusion and unrest and that it would help keep her fighting to stay with them, "Alexandria Gracelyn Rose Lenox."

The angry woman's hand tightened on Lydia's throat and the claws poked her skin just firm enough to create three small trails of blood on the front of her shirt. Still, Lydia kept her fighting spirit strong and refused to back down an inch. She was certain that she could reach her Alex no matter what Sunil tried, "You are my daughter. And I know that you are stronger than this monster. You can fight him with the people who love you."

"No!" The scream was garbled between an angry man and a terrified young woman.

Suddenly, Lydia felt herself fly forcefully backward into the cabinet of medical supplies. She coughed and tried to force her lungs to work again as she slowly sat up on the floor. Pieces of glass from the cabinet and various medical supplies lay strewn haphazardly around the room. When she tried to set her hands down on the floor to push herself up, she hissed in pain as the glass stabbed through the palms. Despite the pain radiating throughout her body, Lydia shoved her hands down and demanded her body stand back up and stagger towards Alex.

"Alex, it will be okay." She coughed through the words and winced when it agitated the wounds on her abdomen. She fell back down to one knee and watched her daughter cry and whimper as her hands pulled brutally at her own hair. "Alex,"

The guards crashed through the door before Lydia could try to stand again. Having been alerted by the sounds of the crash and a possible fight brewing, they decided to ignore her orders to give her and her daughter complete privacy. Two of the professionally dressed men stooped down next to Lydia and tried to examine her wounds. She ignored them and continued to yell orders in vain at the men holding their weapons out towards Rogue.

"Move the queen to safe ground!" One of the guards shouted and motioned for his men to surround the princess who collapsed into a small ball on the floor and continued to whimper, whine, and yell at herself.

"No!" Lydia fought against their hold as the guards tried to drag her out of the room, "Stop this! I am not leaving her!"

The guard on her left side picked her up despite the constant demands and efforts to twist out of his grasp and walked her towards the door. She could only see small parts of what happened to Rogue as the guards encircled her. One of them held a very large looking needle in his hand, the only type that could possibly go through skin as tough as Alex's.

Of course, the princess didn't seem to even be aware she was cornered as she shook her head and continued to mumble words that no one in the room could understand. She covered her face and seemed to be changing into a truly wild animal with no concept of anything besides a desperately overpowering desire to escape. Rogue had to escape the room, the noise, the lights, the people, and most urgently escape her own mind.

"What is going on here?!"

That voice. Rogue finally opened her eyes, one yellow and one green, and looked out towards the sound. She couldn't see his face through the oncoming line of mansion guards, but she knew it was him. Even before he spoke again, she knew that it was the one man who needed to forget her the most.

"What are you doing? Back off! If you corner her it will just make Sunil attack!" The voice stopped and the familiar face of what was once _her_ Cajun appeared over the shoulder of a guard, "Chere, you gotta try and calm down. I'm here now. Everyone is gonna calm down and we can talk, just you and me. Just like old times, mon coeur."

"No…" Alex spoke up so softly it was almost impossible to hear her over the commotion. She closed her eyes hugged her knees to her chest and finally shouted, "No more talking!"

The light that filled the room blinded all of the occupants for a moment and somehow shoved them back a good three feet. When the light dimmed all that could be seen in Rogue's spot was a thick wall of jagged ice spears jutting out from a floor to ceiling wall of solid ice. Although it was rather blurry, when the guards looked close enough between the spikes they knew instantly that their troubled princess was gone.

A gaping hole stood on the other side of the frozen wall and left no trace as to how the young woman escaped. The guards speculated whether she flew or possibly teleported away, but those who knew her best remained silent. When Lydia finally looked over to Logan and Remy, she spotted the same shock shimmering in their eyes along with the same amounts of concern and love for Alex. It helped relight the flame of hope in Lydia's chest that her daughter would come through this. How they would handle this she still didn't know, but she was certain in the fact that at least the rest of her daughter's family would fight till the end as well.

"How did she do that…" Remy mumbled to himself and tore his eyes from the intimidating ice structure to look at Logan, "She never absorbed someone with ice powers before."

"It is starting," Lydia hobbled over with the help of a guard and remembered the warning Mystique had given them hours earlier, "Ice was on of her father's favorite powers… Their strengths are starting to blend together…"

"We gotta catch that kid before she literally blows this whole place up." Logan gruffly added as the whole room agreed through a response of awkward silence.


	16. Which World Is Yours?

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.**

 **Thank you to everyone who looked at the previous chapters and this one. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at this chapter. This one seems a bit rambley, but hopefully it will be an okay read for you guys and gals.**

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One thing Raven wholeheartedly believed was no matter how bleak the situation, she could always find a part to mold and foster into something that worked for her plans. It was a rather useful skill when you'd spent the majority of your life living as a second-class citizen under the strict thumb of an egomaniac. No matter what bizarre, life-threatening situation Sunil and Griffin threw her way, she'd been able to leap over the hurdles and make it to the other side relatively unscathed.

Which is exactly why escaping through the back hallways of the governor's heavily guarded mansion was a piece of cake for the talented woman. Though her heart ached at the news of Anna's sudden power display and subsequent disappearance from the infirmary, it didn't threaten to break her task in the slightest. There were much bigger plans in the works and she could be of far greater use to her daughter if she stuck to her own ideas. The main thing was getting Kurt and Anna out of Lenox by any means necessary.

"You're late." A tall man, busily fidgeting with his eye patch hissed to her as she slithered past the small opening to their underground meeting place. "We can't afford these delays."

"Do you realize who you're talking to?" A shorter, and far younger, member of the group whispered into his ear, "She's you-know-who's great-granddaughter."

"How can you be scared of a ghost?" The old man countered and shoved the youngster away, "We all know he lost to a little lost _princess_."

The words barely exited his wrinkled mouth, before a rock whizzed past his face and forced him to stiffen instinctively. The clink of the stone against the wall echoed through the dark tunnel, leaving each member of the group to slowly let out a collectively held breath. Raven, clutching a second rock if the crowd lost its focus again, stood straighter as the entire group slowly started to study her face.

It was a rag tag team, if the namer was being generous, but it _was_ filled to the brim with specialists in a wide variety of fields. No one survived growing up during the heyday of the revolution without acquiring a few talents. It was fight or fail for most of the fortunate Morphs. Those born without any familial claim to fame, were generally left to wallow in the streets until they met their untimely end or clawed tooth and nail into a basic grunt soldier role.

If Raven could give her family credit for anything, it was that they demanded anyone judged _acceptable_ should be given a task to perform to help the greater good. When the revolution fizzled out, and Anna made her rash decision to empty the Morphs' land straightaway, it left quite a few talented people waltzing around the Lenox dimension just itching for a new cause to support. And Mystique, knowing the inner workings of their minds to almost telepathic levels, had a cause they could definitely get behind.

"If you are done with your idiotic arguments," She started her speech coldly, reminding some of the eldest group members of her grandfather, "We have much bigger tasks at hand and far too little time."

When the group's last mumbling members quieted down, Raven finally delved into the real reasons behind the secret gathering, "Our ancestors' great cause will finally be realized; the Lenox reign will end. They have led and encouraged the destruction of our people for far too long, and it is time we strike back."

The crowd cheered in hushed tones that seemed to echo all around the barren sewer line, as if the voices of their past were cheering alongside them.

"The strength of their people rests on the shoulders of a naïve and untrained kid." Raven forced her voice to drop into a disgusted tone, "Are you willing to leave the future of _your_ homeland to _her_?"

The general positive mutterings through the crowd and offered suggestions of death to Lenoxians, alerted her to the fact the crowd was indeed playing right into her hand. She honestly didn't care what they did to the land or the people of Lenox, as long as she got what she wanted.

Most of those brave enough to join her team were holdovers from the rebellion that would show little, if any, pity for Mystique's connection to the princess. She held no false hope that her grandfather and great-grandfather's refusal to talk about her personal revolt against their plans to the people was out of concern for her safety. They knew, as well as she did, how furious everyone would be if they heard of such dishonor in the ranks.

Still, she couldn't help finding an ironic dose of humor in the fact their refusal to talk and risk hurting family pride had given her open room to make up whatever story worked best for her. A few twisted lines and these uninformed Morphs were eating right out of her hand. As long as she let them believe she was making a sacrifice by taking on the princess, everything would work out smoothly.

"We all know getting rid of her would leave you free to finally retake the dimension. So, my friends, I offer you a plan that will not only rid you of this pest but also ensure no one else will ever attempt to invade the land you deserve."

The way the crowd swayed in her favor with nothing more than a few attractive proclamations and a long forgotten family connection shoved in their face, amused her to no end. People were fickle creatures and sometimes she could hardly believe just how easy it was to derail their views on certain matters. With the crowd fully entranced in her Morph supportive speech, Mystique set out the basic guidelines for how they could approach the plan.

In the early days of the revolution, the Morphs had worked diligently on a machine to replicate the abilities of a mimic. The device itself proved to be a failure of sorts, since the transferred abilities and thoughts of the giver only remained for short durations of time in the receiver. The real triumph of the machine, which Raven's shortsighted relatives never realized, was its connection to the Lenox dimension's power source. In order to support a machine so formidable, Sunil tapped into one of the strongest power sources in the land.

Deep below the Lenox family's main castle resided a mysterious energy. Little was actually known about the giant glowing crystal, but various inquiries and expeditions by Lenox scholars had uncovered a few basic pieces of information. Both the scholars and Morph revolutionaries knew it powered the teleportation stones, but only Raven and other select few were aware this crystal also played a vital role in the health of the land, water, and even the air in the dimension.

Years before Raven was even a thought, the Morphs began their drilling program to create a direct line through the Morph underground to the base of the crystal. It took countless years and lives to reach the gem, and even more time to create a hook up sturdy enough to allow the flow of energy between the sources. The unbridled strength in the crystal worked perfectly as a power source for Sunil's machine. And now she could only hope a reverse charge, as large as Anna could provide, would upset the entire structure until it collapsed.

"If we shock the crystal with enough power," Raven informed her eager listeners with the most basic of descriptions, "The whole thing will shatter and Lenox will be left free for the taking."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" The eye-patch man grumbled, "A simple loss of their power source isn't going to keep that brat from trying to use her mimic abilities to stop us."

"What exactly do you think is going to cause the power surge?" Raven hissed at him, not willing to give any ground away, "I lure her into the machine and in one zap her powers charge the crystal past its breaking point."

The man, still unimpressed by the young Raven's boldness, dared to question her further, "You expect us to believe she would just follow you into the machine? How could someone like _you_ even expect to get her attention?"

In a flash of movement, Raven shot forward and knocked the man to the floor with one sweeping kick. A rough cough escaped the man's lips as his back slammed onto the stone floor and Raven's knee stabbed his chest. She held the base of her right palm against his throat and applied just enough pressure to leave the man fearful of suffocation. The crowd, accustomed to such physical methods of gaining attention and leadership status, took a few steps away from the pair and watched in curious silence.

"That," Raven, eerily whispered as her face dangled only inches above the man's own, "Is not your concern. I will get her there even if I have to drag her by the roots of her hair." She pressed his throat harder and the older man started to panic, "All you have to do is keep everyone in that mansion busy. Got it?"

"Yes…" He barely rasped out the response, but Raven refused to yield until she received the answer that assured her of her dominance.

"I think we can do better than that." Her yellow eyes glowed intimidatingly as she leaned so close her loose red locks tickled his face.

"My Mirza." As he whispered out the words that destroyed the last remnants of his pride, the man's vision began to blur.

Pleased, possibly too much so, by the term of utmost respect in the Morph world, Raven let go of his throat and stood back up.

She knew the crowd was watching her with profound respect, despite the animalistic way she showed her dominance. It was the only form of communication they truly seemed to understand. Despite how easily it worked in her favor, as well as how humorous she occasionally found their simplicity to be, a small part of her brain pitied these people. A generation lost to the whims of a crazed dictator she long ago saw for the weak-minded villain he truly was.

"You all know exactly where to start your rumors and disruptions. The people are pleading for someone to whip them up into a frenzy. And you are just the ones to do it."

Raven turned her back to the group; fully confident she'd snuck in a bluff so powerful no one would dare challenge her. After taking a small pause to let the words fully sink into their heads, Raven turned on her heel and demanded in a terrifyingly guttural voice that they set out for their pre-assigned places.

The flurry of bodies rushing out various makeshift exits to enact her plan was slightly thrilling. There was something about people following her commands that gave Mystique a sense of contentment. Generally, she found no real pleasure in dealing with stubborn people who insisted on having their way no matter how correct they may or may not be. Of course the irony that half of her main goal was capturing a world-class stubborn mutant, wasn't lost on the woman either.

Raven slipped out a side exit and forced her form to alter into a far less noticeable hue. The boldest, though most unintelligent of her group, was already standing in Merdian's centrally located park. Between his shouts to the people about the Lenox family's abuses of power and the desperate need for immediate action, the gathered crowd of straggling Morphs' faces began to shift from the downtrodden norm to a fearfully hopeful expression.

Just as she predicted, it only took a small surge of courage to entirely change the playing field. The board was set and Queen Lydia's players would soon feel the full force of angering the most cutthroat Morph in all of Lenox.

"Game on," She declared with a definite ominous curl of her crimson lips.

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 **The term the Morphs used for a sign of respect, according to Wikipedia, "is a historical title of Persian origin, denoting the rank of a high nobleman or Prince. It is usually defined in English as a royal or imperial Prince of the Blood." Bloodlines are very important to the Morphs, so I figured it could show great respect to be considered, "Prince of the Blood".**


	17. Why Stay?

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Do Not Own The Song "Why Stay?/A Promise" From The Musical Next To Normal.**

 **Thank you to everyone who looked at the previous chapter. I appreciate you guys and gals taking time out of your busy lives to look at this story and chapter. The chapter's title and a large part of Anna and Remy's argument was taken from the song 'Why Stay?/A Promise" from the musical Next To Normal. Thanks to Jehilew for a lovely review and also lots of help in the planning of this chapter.**

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Remy LeBeau was unsure of almost everything as he trudged through the mountainous terrain surrounding the outskirts of Meridan.

After watching Rogue's icy vanishing act, the entire mansion came unglued. Within seconds, voices were shouting down every hallway while men and women of various colors and mutations raced off to check each nook and cranny for one terrified woman. The X-Men, and even Lydia, had tried in vain to talk to Remy, to grab his attention long enough to assign him to a search party or something. But it all felt like more senseless noise in the growing panic.

Each word bounced off him and fell into the forgotten abyss without a single acknowledgment. Every plan they attempted to hobble together was nothing more than a giant waste of precious time to the fidgety Cajun. He didn't need their help, or their concern, and he certainly did not appreciate the pitying looks attempting to swallow Lydia and himself whole.

What Remy needed, was the woman who made both his heart soar and mind race. Their relationship wasn't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. He knew down to his bones the condition of his mind was becoming as fucked up as hers. But it couldn't lay a hand on the simple fact she was the person he loved with more strength than his heart ever believed possible.

"Chere," He whispered the name when his red eyes finally spotted the pained woman.

She stood a short distance away on a flat rock that jutted out the side of the mountain trail. Surprisingly, she seemed somewhat steady. Her bare feet gripped the boulder with great force as if she expected some disturbance would soon try to rattle her frail body. He knew she'd heard him approach based on the swift tilt of her head and the slow rise of her shoulders.

Yes, Anna knew that Remy was only steps away, but she absolutely refused to turn and face him.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered, her arm's clutching her torso for warmth against the evening chill.

Out of habit, he reached out and gently touched her covered shoulders with toasty hands. The simple move scared the woman so thoroughly; she leaped off the rock and into the air.

Rogue hovered silently above Remy while he offered a soft apology, before slowly floating back to the ground. He'd figured she'd be jumpy, but the terrified green eyes staring unblinkingly into his own were unsettling enough to knock the words right out of his mouth.

"I've been looking for you," Remy gradually spoke up, not wanting to scare the woman away, "You gave Remy quite a scare, Rogue."

Anna looked away from his face, whether it was to avoid seeing the honest expression of care radiating through those ember colored eyes or just to keep herself distant from everything, he wasn't sure.

"I know you're scared…" Still treating her like an anxious forest creature, the Cajun outstretched his hand towards her.

"Stop saying that!" She growled ferociously, "None of you know!"

"Well then," Slowly, the hand dropped back to his side, "Talk to me. Tell me what I need to know to understand. I want to help you." Despite the rage hiding behind her hisses, Remy remained calm and focused every fiber of energy at his disposal into concern for the panicked woman.

She was quiet for a moment, and then suddenly demanded, "Why stay?"

"What?"

"Why do you _stay_?" She took a step towards him repeating the request in a louder voice, "Why not just go on with your life?! I know, _you_ know, we all know you tried, but this won't work."

Remy furrowed his brows and the pain in his gut lurched with each syllable Rogue uttered, "Of course it won't work if you just give up and let him win!"

Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure why he was already yelling. It wasn't out of anger so much as pure panic. One look into those big green eyes and every nightmare Remy'd battled from the start of the entire Lenox ordeal flooded his mind until he was so far adrift he felt no one would hear his cries without the added vocal strength.

"You think I'm just _giving up_?" The audacity of his claim nearly knocked her over, "Do you have any idea how tired I am? How much energy it takes to stand here and not let the psyche screaming in my head tear everyone in my life limb from limb?! I can't fight this forever Remy!"

Two could play the dance of stubbornness, "That is why you have me and all your friends and family! Trust me. You have to trust that together we can fix this. We can make this better."

"And _this_ is better? Hoping and hurting day after fucking day!" Anna's brows furrowed in matching frustration before she poked the man square in the chest, "Why not just end it with this failure?!

"They'd all understand it, Remy. They'd say you're better off being free!" She backed away from him, the bite of her words lost to a far more overwhelming self-hatred, "And maybe… I'd be better off free of me too…"

"A promise."

"What?" The words were soft as if her voice were still trapped within the depression of her mind.

"I promised that I was going to see us through anything this damned dimension throws our way."

Anna didn't speak at first. She did look back up to his face, despite the instinctual urge to hide the tears threatening to fall at any minute.

"You want to know why I stay? Why I will _always_ stay right beside you?" He stepped forward and grabbed her upper arms. She didn't fight the hold, despite how firmly he clutched her and how powerfully Remy's eyes stared into her own moist pair. "I love you."

The simple phrase was the sweetest poison Rogue had ever experienced. She yanked herself from his grip and placed a hand on her forehead, as the ground suddenly became unreliable. In one single sentence, Remy LeBeau had brought her to the height of delight and the depth of terror. Anna shoved the mixing emotions as deep as humanly possible into the bottom of her heart.

"How could you say that?!" She asked in a hissed whisper feeling safest when anger flooded her bloodstream again. She knew the feeling well and didn't doubt she'd be able to tackle and control this creature far better than the swelling of matching affection for Remy attempting to break through her shields. "After all the crap I drug you through…and you say that you l…"

"I love you." He repeated, not willing to back down when she choked on the word.

"You _can't_ love a monster, Remy!"

Anna placed both her palms against her closed eyes and tried to take calming breaths.

How many times had she foolishly wondered what it would be like to hear those words? She'd always known, in her heart of hearts, love for a person, a rogue, like her would end badly for everyone. She could only hope to save Remy from his stupidity before her own emotions tried to reciprocate his statement.

"You are not a monster." Remy moved forward again, his voice solid and strong like a life preserver tossed to a drowning man. "You're an unstoppable whirlwind of strength, intelligence, and beauty that leaves people quaking in their boots."

As Anna's hands slid from her face Remy took the initiative to step so close their chests touched.

The tears welled up in her eyes until Anna could no longer see Remy's face clearly. Why did he have to be so foolish? Why couldn't he forget her and save himself from this entire mess? Why did he torture her with fantasies that could never be?!

"I don't know even know what's going to happen tomorrow and… and you talk about this _thing_?"

" _Love_ , Chere." The word had a freeing effect, and he refused to hide the emotion any longer. She needed to know she was loved now more than ever. "I'm talking about love."

"There you go again! Would you quit spouting off nonsense for one minute!" She wiped unproductively at the tears now streaming down her face.

"It isn't nonsense. Maybe you don't love me now, maybe you won't ever, but for me, this is love, Cherie. Real and unconditional..." Remy slowly stroked her wild curls; "You're right about one thing, Petit. None of us know what's going to happen in this life. And that," he leaned so close their lips were mere inches apart, "Is exactly why I won't spend another day pretending you are anything but my love et mon tres coeur (and my very heart)."

It felt, to Anna, as if the very sky was conspiring with the man to produce a clean slate between them. A large crack of thunder erupted overhead and a steady fall of rain washed over the pair. It was impossible for Remy to tell what were tears and what was rainfall, but it no longer seemed to matter. Her skinny arms clutched his middle tightly, as if she fully believed he'd vanish at any moment, while her forehead leaned against his shoulder.

"You're an idiot." She mumbled in heartbreaking humor as he held her shaking form against his chest.

"I know, I know," He laughed softly and tightened the embrace, knowing full well she could only be pushed so far in this state.

"I can't…" She started to try and formulate some response to his admissions, then stopped as a wave of dizziness overtook her. Her knees buckled, but Remy easily scooped her into his arms bride style. "Remy…"

"Non," He kissed the top of her head and started looking around the area for a small hiding spot. "It's okay. Just rest for now."

The weather wasn't the worst he'd ever dealt with, but the longer he could keep Rogue away from all of the noise and confusion of the mansion, the better. She was far safer with just him anyway. It was all of the outside forces that kept trying to poke at her, which set everything off. Maybe they couldn't stay hidden forever, but he _could_ give her one night of peace. Just one night to rest before facing the uncertain future.

Thankfully, the rocky terrain offered a makeshift shelter a mere twenty feet up the trail. The floor was smooth, but the cave was unforgivingly small, forcing the pair to sit huddled together in the farthest corner from the entrance. Remy pulled Rogue onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her freezing body. She smiled softly at him, enjoying the warmth that always radiated from his muscular frame.

"Anyone ever tell you," She shivered and rested her head in the crook of his neck, glad, for once, for the thickness of her hair since it offered a shield between them, "You're a walkin' hot water bottle, Cajun?"

"Not the sexiest thing Remy's ever been called, but I'll take it as a compliment under the circumstances." The joke earned a small groan from Rogue and a short chuckle from himself.

As they sat in the silence, he battled an internal storm of fears and hopes. He couldn't admit he was pleased she didn't say those three words back to him right away, but he could understand the reluctance. Still, understanding it and enjoying it did not go hand in hand. Baring your soul and having someone cry in response still carried a decent sting.

Rogue's hand rested against his chest, as if she was trying to catch each beat of his heart in her memory. The sound was so steady and strong, that it easily started to lull her into a restful sleep. If only the whole world could be this consistent, she told herself as Remy planted a kiss on the crown of her head. If she only had some way to know, some inkling, that this could all be overcome. Then maybe, just maybe, she could have shouted back that all-important phrase.

She knew she felt it. Down to the depths of her body, she could feel that strange twinge of passion Remy LeBeau's twinkling eyes, flirtatious laugh, and warm embrace always brought out. But, she couldn't find a way to wade through the physical and mental dangers to tell him the truth. Each time she let him in, the risk to his life, one of the last precious jewels in her world, grew by terrifying heights.

If she really, truly loved this wonderful man, then telling him was the worst possible thing she could do…

Remy held his breath for a moment when Rogue's hand quickly left his chest. The movement wasn't fluid enough to convince him she'd simply fallen asleep. No, as he hummed a small tune to himself and massaged her back with one of his hands, Remy accepted she was trying to pull away again. It hurt, but he forced himself to ignore her reflex and merely keep their comforting embrace.

"Remy," She whispered.

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

After a moment of silence, Anna curled into a tighter ball in his arms and added, "Thank you for staying even if you had every reason to leave. I think I'm going to miss moments like this, wrapped up in your arms, more than anything…"

The words forced Remy into a still silence. His hand stopped rubbing and the comforting rhythm of his chest paused as well. It was an odd statement and he definitely did not care for the ominous tone coating the words, but at that very moment, in that desolate cave, Remy smiled softly and sought comfort where he could.

"I will always stay." His hand gently pulled her chin upwards and offered her a single kiss, "And you will always have my heart."


End file.
